Quantitative assessment parameters of the protection level of national strategic sites in the EU

Abstract

Property protection against deliberate human acts, such as terrorist attacks, thefts or vandalism, is governed in manifold legal regulations, technical standards and professional publications. Nonetheless, none of those tackles the property protection issues comprehensively, nor provides any satisfactory answer to the question of the optimal design of those systems from the perspective of their technical efficiency and economic effectiveness. Since the 1990s, the University of Žilina, in cooperation with certifying authorities and experts of the National Security Authority, has been developing mathematical models to determine the protection level of national strategic sites. From the long-term perspective the research aims to develop specific mathematical models based on breakthrough resistance of passive protection components, probabilities of violator detection by active protection components in the respective zones of protected area, and intervention unit response times. Those models will facilitate assessment of property security levels and quality from the technical-economic perspective. Any mathematical property protection system model works with input and output parameters. This article illustrates the basic parameters that can be used in the assessment of technical efficiency of a new or a proposed protective system of national strategic sites. The principal measurable parameters considered herein are: protective measure efficiency coefficient, total breakthrough time of passive protection components, probability of violator elimination, cumulative probability of (correct) violator detection or probability of successful intervention of intervention unit, or critical detection point. One of the principal reasons for absence of such a tool for assessment of the level of protective systems is the necessity to join experts, funds and competences from various industries, such as the security industry, electrical power industry, building industry, engineering industry or economy or applied mathematics. For this reason, the University of Žilina, apart from its scientific and research activity, creates communication space for discussion also via the European project: Competency Based e-portal of Security and Safety Engineering, which aims to create a network of educational, research and financial institutions operating in the security field in the EU. © 2010 WIT Press.