Identifying security checkpoints locations to protect the major U.S. urban areas
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Transit networks are integral to the economy and to society, but at the same time they could allow terrorists to transport weapons of mass destruction into any city. Road networks are especially vulnerable, because they lack natural checkpoints unlike air networks that have security measures in place at all major airports. One approach to mitigate this risk is ensuring that every road route passes through at least one security checkpoint. Using the Ford-Fulkerson maximum-flow algorithm, we generate a minimum set of checkpoint locations within a ring-shaped buffer area surrounding the 50 largest US urban areas. We study how the number of checkpoints changes as we increase the buffer width to perform a cost-benefit analysis and to identify groups of cities that behave similarly. The set of required checkpoints is surprisingly small (10-124) despite the hundreds of thousands of road arcs in those areas, making it feasible to protect all major cities.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- OSTI ID:
- 1234652
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-14-29080
- Journal Information:
- Homeland Security Affairs, Vol. 11, Issue 8; ISSN 1558-643X
- Publisher:
- Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and SecurityCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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