Southeast Region Research Initiative

1. Real-Time Identification and Monitoring of Barge-Carried Hazardous Commodities (Dr. Mingzhou Jin) - Active

In response to increased terrorist threats related to hazardous material movements on the U.S. inland waterway system, towing vessel operators and fleet area managers, at specified reporting points, are required to notify the U.S. Coast Guard’s Inland River Vessel Movement Center of the movement of barges loaded with Certain Dangerous Cargo (CDC). The current reporting process is manual and cannot identify and monitor CDC loaded barges in real-time. The objective of this project is to develop and field test a prototype system that provides more accurate, uniform, and timely data on hazardous movements by barges, especially those certified as CDC, and to identify and report barges with potential security threats. The proposed system is expected to automatically track and monitor barges with CDC and communicate the real-time information to a data server.

2. Real-Time Operations Support for Emergency Evacuations (Dr. Li Zhang) - Active

Real-time traffic information gathering and management is one of the most important aspects of emergency evacuations operations, but one where scarce practical research has been conducted. The objective of this research project is to improve the operations during a vehicular emergency evacuation by using newly developed real-time traffic information gathering technologies to assess traffic conditions and to detect incidents on the main evacuation routes. The ultimate goal is to create a system which emergency management agencies, and/or other public safety organizations, can rapidly deploy anywhere to help manage traffic operations during emergency evacuations.

3. Rapid Detection of Agriterrorism via Remote Sensing (Dr. Lori Bruce) - Active

Interruption of the agricultural food supply could be accomplished by widespread application of airborne bio-chemical agents (ABAs) to agricultural crops. Terrorists could utilize plant pathogens or existing, commercially available herbicides and pesticides that may be safely used in some crops but which would have catastrophic effects on others. There exists a strong need for a means to rapidly and accurately detect such an event, or the lack thereof in the case of a hoax. This project includes the design, implementation, and validation of an automated target recognition (ATR) system for utilizing hyperspectral imaging (HSI) data to detect when an ABA has been applied to an agricultural crop.

4. Assured Strategic Communications During Natural and Willful Disasters (Dr. Lori Bruce) - completed

The objective of this project is to develop a strategic plan for building, operating, and maintaining a robust, national emergency communications system that will assure reliable communications during disaster management operations, improve preparedness, and ensure interoperability. The proposed strategic plan will include risk and economic viability assessments, identification of critical systems and technologies, and development of operating principles that are necessary for assured communications during future national emergencies. This research project will take advantage of the Office of Interoperability and Compatibility’s SAFECOM and RapidCom initiatives in devising strategies for a highly reliable communications (both public and private) infrastructure during disaster management. The technology will be developed taking into account the existing and emerging standards so as to provide ease of interoperability and upgradeability.

5. Capturing Hurricane Katrina Data for Analysis and Lessons-Learned Research (Dr. David R. Shaw) - Active

Hurricane Katrina represents an unparalleled opportunity for homeland security research and study. During this event of national significance, the importance of geospatial data was demonstrated during the search, rescue and recovery efforts. The Mississippi Geographic Information System community volunteered countless hours in the weeks following Katrina, generating thousands of GIS, remote sensing and map products for use by local, state and federal agency personnel. However, the lack of a central archive for geospatial information presents a lost opportunity for understanding how these services could be improved for future events. For most major catastrophic incidents, the acquisition, management and archive of critical data does not occur in a coordinated, organized manner. Instead, various agencies that have operational responsibilities acquire and hold data that pertain to their mission without the mandate or funding to share those data to a central archive. Data held by individual agencies is maintained for varying lengths of time and is then either discarded or written out to a permanent storage media. Without a central archive to hold the entire collection of data from all agencies the full understanding of response efforts to any incident will be very difficult.

6. Semantics-Driven Knowledge Discovery System for Wide Area Monitoring of Electric Power Grid (Dr. Nicholas Younan) - Active

A new innovation related to critical infrastructure protection and cybersecurity for electric power systems would be to provide a well engineered human-machine interface that allows knowledge discovery for comprehensive wide area monitoring across the State of Mississippi and the southeastern part of the United States. This would permit the integration of data and information between electric utilities before an incident - allowing for detection of terrorist threats, prevention of cascading failures through remedial actions, and innovative solutions for restoration efforts.

7. Southeast Region Critical Infrastructure Protection Center Initiative (Dr. Rayford Vaughn) - Active

This project seeks to expand the current operational Center for Computer Security Research (CCSR) and its Department of Justice funded Forensics Training Center (FTC) with an end result of creating a Critical Infrastructure Protection Center (CIPC) at Mississippi State University. This proposal offers to expand current facilities to create a Southeast region Critical Infrastructure Protection Center which will provide training, awareness, testing, technical advisement, and emergency response capability. The CIPC will initially focus on cyber security, digital forensics, and biological agents during the first year of operation and will expand into a more comprehensive operation during years 2 and 3 which will address all critical infrastructure priorities as identified by PDD-63 and HSPD-7.

8. Analysis of WMD Materials in Waste and Storm Water Treatment Infrastructures in Southeastern US Cities (R. T. Jubin, joint with Oak Ridge National Laboratory) - Active

This effort focuses on the development of estimation tools and the required supporting data to predict the distribution and fate of a dispersed Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) material (radiological, chemical, or biological agents) in wastewater and storm water treatment and handling systems of the State of Mississippi, specifically, and in general, for any Southeastern US urban environment in the 24 to 96-hour period immediately following a dispersal event.

9. Increasing Community Disaster Resilience through Targeted Strengthening of Critical Infrastructure (Dr. Isaac L. Howard) - Active

The resilience of communities against the force of natural disasters is a complex function of the community’s socio-political and physical features. This project focuses on technical and engineering aspects of two of the most significant components of a community’s physical resilience -- protection against threats posed by moving water, and the reconstitution of critical infrastructure to permit community recovery. In contrast to historical “case hardening” approaches, this research focuses on targeted solutions for key infrastructure components, as identified by the community or its designees. The research further considers only those solutions which may be rapidly deployed to achieve maximum benefit to the community, typically through the use of on-site materials, pre-engineered components, and innovative construction materials and techniques. Finally, the proposed research is limited to components that may be damaged by water currents or waves, though portions of the work may be easily extensible to disasters initiated by high winds or by strong ground motions.

10. Secure Border Initiative Unattended Ground Sensor Networks (Dr. Patrick Donohoe) - Active

This research project is focused on enhancing the technologies utilized in UGS to improve the performance, endurance, covertness, maintainability and integration of these devices in the context of the overall SBInet security system. The objectives of this research include: (1) defining UGS technical requirements that are consistent with DHS SBInet needs; (2) conducting a detailed system engineering effort to enable the development of a fieldable SBIUGS prototype system and (3) developing a SBI-UGS prototype that demonstrates new advancements in sensing performance consistent with DHS border security requirements.

11. Tools for Enhanced Mapping and Managing Post-Disaster Debris (Dr. Charles A. Waggoner) - Active

The overall objective of this research effort is to enhance recovery from and resilience to large scale disasters by providing Mississippi state agency personnel, as well as Mississippi local governments with tools to enhance their ability to manage disaster related debris. This project includes four general thrust areas.  Thrust Area 1 – Use of Remote Sensing Data to Enhance Effectiveness of Debris Management. This activity will involve developing software and procedures for rapidly producing post-disaster maps containing information necessary to optimize management of debris piles. Thrust Area 2 – Evaluation of an Alternative Treatment Technology for Selected Waste Streams. Land filling debris in unlined trenches is currently a major disposal mechanism. Numerous waste streams are prospects for segregation and alternative treatment. Certain problem waste streams (such as Copper Chromated Arsenic (CCA) treated wood) will be evaluated for disposal by low temperature pyrolysis. Thrust Area 3 – Development of a Preliminary Debris Disposal Cost Projection Model. This model will be a first step toward providing MEMA and FEMA with an effective tool that will greatly simplify the process of providing relief funding to counties and municipalities. Thrust Area 4 – Filling in Technical Data Gaps for Debris Management. This effort will receive extensive input from the Advisory Council to identify gaps in technical information with respect to the behavior of various components of debris piles to treatment. Data will also be collected to reduce uncertainties associated with the composition of large debris piles. Information needed to enhance the accuracy of the Preliminary Debris Disposal Model will be generated by this effort.

12. Utilization of Emergency Alert Systems: An Analysis of Oktibbeha County and MSU Systems (Mr. Dallas Breen) - Active

The purpose of this research is to understand the technical, operational and social aspects of emergency warning systems. The research objective is to perform comparative analysis of currently available emergency warning (or alerting) systems in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi. This analysis will highlight performance and capabilities of each system and help emergency management decision makers gauge the relative advantages and/or disadvantages of implement particular emergency warning systems. It will also serve as a primer in understanding the future implications for improving alert systems in the event of future emergencies impacting not only a region but public entities (such as universities). The research will aim to determine the overall effectiveness, usefulness, and cohesion with other emergency alert activities currently utilized by emergency response personnel in the field. The research will result in a report detailing the technical capabilities, operational considerations, and social implications of each system.

13.  Levee Assessment via Remote Sensing (Dr. James Aanstoos) - Active

The research objective of this project is to develop a suite of assessment tools and procedures and systems integration products that will assist levee owners and operators in finding potential levee problem areas. The proposed research will develop advanced methods, tools and techniques to rapidly assess the surface and sub-surface conditions of levees to identify the vulnerable zones in advance of a crisis. The research will also develop tools that can be used to classify levee segments according to their vulnerability against slope stability, under seepage, through seepage and flood overtopping mechanisms. Improved knowledge of the status of levees would significantly improve the allocation of resources to inspect, test, and repair the ones in most need. The proposed research and development effort will result in new methods and tools for improving that knowledge, and will give levee managers new tools to prioritize their tasks.