Discussion Questions: Using resources and references from outside the classroom identify a technology that you believe will have an impact on the effectiveness of a response to a port centric emergency. The emergency you chose and the technology you select are entirely up to you BUT there must be an acknowledged connection to a port, and its’ operations. In your response you will want to consider issues and concerns, pertaining to access control, physical security, port facility, and safety and emergency management measures.

Instructions: Fully utilize the materials that have been provided to you in order to support your response. Your initial post should be at least 350 words. Please respond to at least two other students. Responses should be a minimum of 150 words and include direct questions. You may challenge, support or supplement another student’s answer using the terms, concepts and theories from the required readings. Also, do not be afraid to respectfully disagree where you feel appropriate; as this should be part of your analysis process at this academic level.

Forum posts are graded on timeliness, relevance, knowledge of the weekly readings, and the quality of original ideas. Sources utilized to support answers are to be cited in accordance with the APA writing style by providing a general parenthetical citation (reference the author, year and page number) within your post, as well as an adjoining reference list. Refer to grading rubric for additional details concerning grading criteria.

Student #1 Roderick

Using resources and references from outside the classroom identify a technology that you believe will have an impact on the effectiveness of a response to a port centric emergency. The emergency you chose and the technology you select are entirely up to you BUT there must be an acknowledged connection to a port, and its’ operations. In your response you will want to consider issues and concerns, pertaining to access control, physical security, port facility, and safety and emergency management measures.

I am currently taking Hazardous Materials in Transportation as my other course and during our week 4 forum we were asked to discuss the 5 modes of transportation. Once I answered the questions, somehow my Professor and I got into the topic of artificial intelligent (AI) and autonomous cars. For this week’s forum, I thought about that conversation.

One of the technologies that is being discussed is autonomous surface vessels. In 2018 autonomous surface vessels began being demonstrated and trialed. Some of the companies involved were Google and Rolls-Royce Marine. The two companies have agreed to develop intelligent awareness systems for vessels, which are thought to be essential for making autonomous ships a reality (Wingrove, 2017). Partnered with Rolls Royce Marine, the intent is to have the first commercial autonomous vessel, whether it is for offshore, passenger, or cargo transport by 2020.

With that being said, this new form of shipping could potentially open the door for new forms of emergencies or disasters. For one, the threat of cyber-attacks such as computer hacking and viruses could easily create a situation that could delay the delivery of goods, cause a run-away vessel, or disasters at sea where ships could potentially be hijacked by pirates with scanner devices and steal ships. Although this may sound like a great idea, conservative views will hold back investments and the major question of how unmanned vessels will cope with congested waters would remain unanswered (Wingrove, 2018). The theory behind this is that the software programs developed with utilize Google’s Cloud software learning engines to further the AI based object classification system used for detecting, identifying, and tracking the objects a vessel can encounter at sea. Aside from this and navigations systems, coupled, with tracking systems, this creates a huge opportunity for hackers across the globe to also create and develop scanning and hacker systems that could create all sorts of havoc on the maritime industry.

Rod

Wingrove, M. (2017, October 3). Google Enters the Autonomous Shipping Race. Retrieved March 11, 2019, fromhttps://www.marinemec.com/news/view,google-enters-the-autonomous-shipping-race_49360.htm

Wingrove, M. (2018, January 2). Ten technologies to shake up maritime in 2018. Retrieved March 11, 2019, fromhttps://www.marinemec.com/news/view,ten-technologies-to-shake-up-maritime-in-2018_50317.htm

Student #2 David

Using resources and references from outside the classroom identify a technology that you believe will have an impact on the effectiveness of a response to a port centric emergency.

The use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones in several different emergency situations at port facilities can be an invaluable piece of technology. Their use by hobbyist for recreational activities over the last few years has increasingly blown up and in fact, their global market is currently worth $2 billion, and that number is estimated to skyrocket to $127 billion in 2020 (Ludwig, 2018). There are numerous areas that drones can help in everyday operations of port security such as risk assessments to determine vulnerabilities of the facility that would not normally be seen from an aerial view, but only from a map or satellite pictures.

Also, drones can perform routine security inspections of the facility to include, parking lots, roof areas and perimeter fence lines, even using thermal imaging. The use of drones can reduce the amount of area that would need to be covered by a small security team, during emergency situations, such as an unauthorized intruder in the port facility. Drones can be deployed by one individual in an operational control room accompanied by CCTV technology, allowing a faster response by security officers once the intruder’s location is identified by the drone.

Another added benefit to using drones in port facilities would be during emergency management situations such as a chemical spill, explosion or fire caused by some type of hazardous cargo, either accidently or intentionally being released into the environment. Using a drone to enter the contaminated area and conduct preliminary investigations would reduce the risk of injury and contamination to port facility personnel. The drone technology has already been tested in other emergency management situations such as natural geo-hazard emergencies to conduct investigations, due to its ability to cover large areas, collect basic and essential information, including the characteristics of disasters, damages and environmental conditions (Huang, Long, Yi, Yi, Zhang & Lei, 2017).

Also, because most port facilities cover large areas of property, drones can also have the added ability to use biometric facial recognition techniques, audio recording systems, and GPS recording on the location of persons that need to be found in an emergency, such as an active shooter or a potential suspicious package situation (Venier & Laukyte, 2018). A draw back to using drones are the issues of privacy and personal data protection being compromised, such as accidently obtaining different types of data on private citizens living in the proximity of port facilities or near critical infrastructure associated with the port.

References

Huang, H., Long, J., Yi, W., Yi, Q., Zhang, G., & Lei, B. (2017). A method for using unmanned aerial vehicles for emergency investigation of single geo-hazards and sample applications of this method. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences,17(11), 1961-1979. doi:10.5194/nhess-17-1961-2017

Ludwig, S. (2018, March 08). Drones: A Security Tool, Threat and Challenge. Retrieved March 12, 2019, from https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/88803-dr…

Venier, S., & Laukyte, M. (2018, November 15). Protection or Danger from Above? The Use of Drones in Emergency, Defence and Security Operations • GSDM. Retrieved March 12, 2019, from https://gsdm.global/use-of-drones-in-emergency-def…