Geographic characteristics of a network interdiction problem

Abstract

The protection of critical infrastructure from natural and intentional events is a key component of any national security agenda. Protection schemes need to be readily identifiable and adaptable to complex changing environments. In this paper, we identify strategic geographic characteristics that impact the location of detection resources (e.g. sensors) towards the defense of regional critical infrastructure. Specifically, we seek to estimate the relationship between the results of a variation of the traditional shortest path network interdiction problem and geographical characteristics of the transportation infrastructure and the urban environment. Experiments conducted on three distinct transportation networks of different shapes and granularities (New York City—grid, Houston—radial, Boston—hybrid) underline the importance of geographic characteristics such as the proximity to resource location, attacker entry points as well as network coverage. Insights gained from this work are relevant to policy and decision makers to facilitate the development of analytical and decision-support tools capable of identifying resource allocation strategies. We discuss a heuristic-based framework that prioritizes the selection of detection resources, reflecting the importance of geographic characteristics. The findings underline the importance of geographical characteristics for the allocation of resources in a regional setting.