Title: A Border Security Decision Support System Driven by Remotely Sensed Data Inputs

Presenter: Douglas Stow, Professor
Address: Department of Geography, San Diego State University (SDSU)
5500 Campanile Drive San Diego, CA 92182-4493
Phone: 619-594-5498
Fax: 619-594-5498
E-mail: stow@mail.sdsu.edu

Project summary: The objective of this project is to develop a spatial decision support system (SDSS) for allocating and deploying resources to secure the U.S. borders against smugglers of weapons, undocumented people, and illicit substances. A team of border security agents and technologists with the San Diego sector of the U.S. Border Security (formerly Border Patrol) agency, state and local enforcement and resource agencies, and remote sensing technology companies are collaborating with researchers from San Diego State University (SDSU) on this project. The project is the only homeland security applications project recently selected by NASA under a recent research program called REASoN. NASA developed technologies such as Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) satellite data, very high resolution (VHR) airborne imaging, and image registration and automated object detection routines are being integrated with commercial satellite data, web-based geographic information systems (GIS), integrated global positioning system/personal data assistants, and ground-based sensors, in a SDSS framework. Multitemporal VHR imaging enables monitoring of features such as trail formation, tunneling, holding structures, and staging areas in the border enforcement zone. Such imagery also enables border security agents to record locations and provide geographic context for interdictions of undocumented immigrants. Landsat ETM+ and TERRA ASTER satellite image data are supporting efforts to model potential landing zones from smuggler aircraft and to assess trafficability in the tactical response zone. TERRA/AQUA MODIS data are used to map fire risk to border security agents and weather-related risks to undocumented immigrants. Mobile communication equipment, web-based GIS, spatial models, and remote hand-held computers with GPS are being integrated to link directly to the SDSS, thereby facilitating resource allocations and enforcement actions for securing the international borders of the U.S. This technology integration will also enable agencies to assess environmental degradation and fire risk, and to prepare to mobilize for natural and bio-terrorist hazards. The complete SDSS will be operational in the USBS San Diego Sector by the end of the five-year study and will serve as a prototype for the other 20 USBS sectors.

Funding Sources: NASA REASoN Program - Applications Project; NASA Affiliated Research Center at SDSU

Collaborators: Professors Allen Hope, Piotr Jankowski, Ming Tsou, and John Weeks (Geography) and Eric Frost (Geological Sciences) (all from SDSU), Dr. Bruce Davis, NASA Stennis Space Center, John Block and Daniel Isenberg (U.S. Border Security agency), Cody Benkelman (Positive Systems, Inc.), Dr. Kevin Opitz (Virtual Learning Systems, Inc.), and Leif Hendricks (Surface Optics Corporation).