Skip to main content

Currently Skimming:

11. The Significance of Crosscutting Challenges and Technologies
Pages 313-334

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 313...
... Or they could simultaneously attack critical nodes within several linked infrastructures to produce enormous overall damage to the nation to its systems and its citizens. A significant array of technology is already available much of it developed by the DOD and DOE that can be adapted to improve homeland security.
From page 314...
... The need for the use and continued development of robotic platforms to support mobile sensor networks for threat detection and intelligence collection. Robotic technologies can also assist humans in such activities as ordnance disposal, decontamination, debris removal, and fire-fighting; 5.
From page 315...
... How severely will firefighting capabilities be limited if part of a city's water system is shut down? Even on smaller scales, modeling and simulation are important tools that can provide useful perspectives on how chemical plumes, radioactive fallout, or spore clouds might disperse through the air and how hazardous material spills might spread over land or in water.1 A particularly important area will be modeling relevant to bioterrorism, as there are a large number of potential biological agents, and a great deal of terror could be generated by a biological attack.
From page 316...
... A number of modeling efforts have been funded by DOD's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and are currently under development, to analyze potential threats to critical infrastructures within the United States, particularly those used by DOD to support operations. However, models describing interactions among various dimensions of critical infrastructure are almost totally lacking.
From page 317...
... Strengthening the government' s ability to execute the modeling and analyses described in this section depends not only on the application of existing capabilities to counterterrorism problems, but also on the development of new capabilities. A systems modeling and analysis research agenda would include a focus on system perspectives for homeland security, modeling and analysis of interdependencies among critical infrastructures, agent-based and system dynamics modeling, development of simulators and learning environments, and risk assessment and management from a multiobjective perspective, including risks up to and including potentially extreme and catastrophic events.
From page 318...
... The use of current data resources for counterterrorism, however, requires the development of significant capabilities for data filtering, quality control, and other procedures to avoid inefficiency and information overload. In a similar spirit, one of the major applications of database-management systems for countering terrorism will be data mining the analysis of historical and current online data, often from disparate information sources, to discern patterns.
From page 319...
... In this case, good data and data analyses are essential for understanding normal patterns of shippingand, thus, to know who to trust and who to scrutinize more carefully because of unusual or suspect patterns. A trusted-fliers program has also been proposed and has been advocated by Governor Tom Ridge, director of the Office of Homeland Security.
From page 320...
... SENSORS AND SENSOR NETWORKS Because homeland defense against terrorist-delivered weapons of mass destruction will involve the entire spectrum of military and federal, state, and local government personnel, as well as volunteer organizations, the scenarios under which sensors will be needed and the protocols for their use may be as varied as each group's specific mission. The DOD and DOE have long been active in developing sensors, but these devices were intended largely for the protection of battlefield troops and the units that support them.
From page 321...
... Finally, military operations may tolerate exposure levels that hurt but do not cripple unit effectiveness, whereas protection of the health of the civilian population to the maximum extent possible is a political mandate. Nevertheless, sensors developed for battlefield detection of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons represent a good starting point.
From page 322...
... As we learn more about the pathogenesis of different agents and the specific bodily responses mounted against them, it may turn out that each pathogen induces a unique molecular signature in the host geneexpression response. Thus, using DNA chips, it may someday be possible, without ever having to culture suspected agents, to know what type and perhaps what species we are encountering and to commence focused and rapid treatment accordingly.
From page 323...
... . Incident response scenarios, by contrast, require handheld portable sensors and minimal training for operators.
From page 324...
... In contrast, to use affinity-based instruments for detection of multiple agents, an array of sensors is needed where the elements of the array receive a variety of coatings, each specialized to allow detection of a specific chemical or biological agent. Either way, to carry sensor-system performance to the level needed, homeland defense will require not only continued improvement in basic sensor performance but also a better definition and understanding of overall performancewhen many sensors are networked together.
From page 325...
... In addition to the need for continued basic sensor work for point-ofentry monitoring and incident-response applications, equally critical technological and economic challenges will involve developing affinity-based sensors that can be cost-effectively networked to provide wide-area monitoring. AUTONOMOUS MOBILE ROBOTIC TECHNOLOGIES Robotic technologies can impact all phases of counterterrorism, including detection, prevention, and response.
From page 326...
... New initiatives under the DARPA/Army Future Combat Systems and Office of Naval Research Gladiator programs suggest that in the next 5 years vehicle platforms of this size may also serve as forward scouts, sentries, surveillance and target-acquisition platforms, communication relays, resupply/logistics vehicles, and even firing platforms. Large robots will also have value for counterterrorism missions.
From page 327...
... . Additional research in guidance technology is required to enable autonomous systems to perform at levels similar to what is achievable by a human operator or pilot when given the same degree of situational awareness.
From page 328...
... Several issues must be addressed in the effort to improve the security of SCADA technologies. First, there is a need for much additional research and modeling on the existing SCADA systems, especially those that monitor networks such as pipelines or power grids, in order to understand their vulnerabilities.
From page 329...
... While the technological elements behind barriers, fences, locks, perimeters, and other physical ways of safeguarding a location as well as nonphysical approaches such as Authentication technologies (including biometrics) and their implications for privacy will be explored in depth in a forthcoming CSTB report from the committee on Authentication Technologies and Their Privacy Implications; see information available online at .
From page 330...
... Decision makers oversee warning systems, human agents administer detectors, relief efforts following chemical or biological attack require the collective efforts of the nation's health machinery, and precision warfare is a highly orchestrated human activity. A key aspect in the effective deployment of any of the technologies discussed in this report is the ease and effectiveness of use of information and other technical outputs by the people they are intended to support.
From page 331...
... A number of programs with broad applicability to these technologies have already been established within DOD, DOE, NSF, and NASA, and relevant research is under way at these agencies, in the national laboratories, and at scores of research universities. For example, in recent years, as concern about terrorism has grown and as the post-Cold War powers have focused on safeguarding nuclear materials, the DOE national laboratories have already begun researching sensors and other detection technologies, as well as data management, visualization, and modeling pertinent to counterterrorism.
From page 332...
... The subcommittee should have participation from the highest levels of the relevant agencies. CONCLUSIONS This chapter has outlined the potential impact of seven crosscutting areassystems analysis and modeling, integrated data management, sensors and sensor networks, robotic technologies, SCADA systems, biometrics, and human factors on counterterrorism efforts.
From page 333...
... Pnvate-sector investments in robotics follow a similar pattern for example, the automotive companies are investing in robotic R&D that will support their production and assembly lines, and energy and water providers are developing robots useful for monitoring fuels pipelines and aqueducts. The work under way is productive and important new technologies are being developed, but even added together, these public and private investments will not produce robots that can be adapted and deployed for many purposes in homeland security such as surveillance, detection, and postdisaster monitoring and recovery.
From page 334...
... Important questions include who the consumer of these technologies will be, whether there will be a commercial market for new products, and what role government procurement can productively play. Despite these problems, the nation' s research system, with vast and diverse capabilities spread among universities, national and federal laboratories, and industry, provides a unique infrastructure and sound basis for mounting aggressive programs in the kinds of crosscutting R&D discussed in this chapter.


This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More information on Chapter Skim is available.