Optimal resource allocation for maritime safety and security

Maritime Safety and Security encompass many types of events: vessel incidents involving loss of life and/or property damage; small and large spills and discharges; and illegal activities such as drug-running or terrorist infiltration. Two of the key strategies employed to counter these threats are location-based problems: surveillance (or patrolling) and action-measures (or response). In the case of surveillance, the location element involves tactical planning to determine how to sample the regions based on historical traffic patterns, or prior incidents, or risk-based measures. In other words, where and when to send patrol vessels to maximize their effectiveness in case of an emergency at sea, can be determined using optimization and statistical analyses. The same approaches can be extended to the use of aircraft for fisheries surveillance or detection of spills. In the case of response planning, placement of facilities such as SAR (Search & Rescue) stations and allocation of resources are location-sensitive. Furthermore, when estimating response times or distances, land-avoidance becomes an important part of the spatial modelling since, evidently, vessels cannot always travel in a straight line. The best mix of people and equipment, whether vessels, aircraft or hovercraft, depends on the capabilities of each (range, equipment, etc.), and the types of incidents and vessels at risk (fishing, shipping, recreational). Such problems are deemed multicriteria decision models (MCDM). In this research, geographic information systems (GIS) will be used to determine optimal location strategies of government resources for effective coastal safety and security, while addressing the theoretical complexities associated with land-avoidance and multicriteria spatial risk modelling. The resulting algorithms and location strategies will be incorporated into the existing version of a maritime decision-aid tool MARIS (Maritime Activity & Risk Investigation System).