GIS-Based Performance Prediction and Evaluation of Civilian Harbour Protection Systems

In this paper a simulation tool is proposed to assess the level of underwater security in civilian harbour installations. The tool is based on a geographical information system, and it allows to improve port security verifying the impact of both new sensors and modification in the sensors placement in the overall harbour protection system. The tool works under the Microsoft Windows Operating System and it is based on the ESRI MapObjects 2.3 library. It permits to load a geographical area with any kind of environmental information, add several type of underwater sensors and several type of intruders and verify what security level is guaranteed by the sensors configuration chosen against the particular intruder selected. Moreover the simulation tool is strictly connected with the Matlab environment to improve the tool flexibility when a new sensor or a new kind of intruder is added. Finally, a genetic algorithm, built in the Matlab environment, allows to find the optimal sensors configuration to obtain a desired security level in the area at the lowest cost.