Fund Allocation for Civil Infrastructure Security Upgrade Nikos D. Lagaros, Ph.D., M.ASCE1; Konstantinos Kepaptsoglou, Ph.D., M.ASCE2; and Matthew G. Karlaftis, Ph.D., M.ASCE3 Abstract: Security of transportation infrastructure is of primary importance in recent years as a result of various breaches worldwide. Increased security concerns lead transportation authorities to improve, upgrade, and enhance surveillance, prevention, and response equip- ment in facilities, frequently under tight budgetary and operational constraints. In this context, a generic selection and resource allocation (S&RA) model is proposed for security upgrades of civil infrastructure, along with a novel technique for efficiently solving the model for real-world instances. An application of the model is offered for the case of the metro system in Athens, Greece, and results are discussed. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000133. © 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers. CE Database subject headings: Infrastructure; Security; Funding; Optimization. Author keywords: Transportation security; Selection and resource allocation; Budget; Particle swarm optimization. Introduction as potential targets for terrorist activities (Meyer 2010; Cox et al. 2011). Worldwide, transportation authorities are increasingly Project selection and resource allocation (S&RA) are at the core concerned with security of their facilities and keep upgrading and of management tasks and activities encountered by organizations expanding relevant surveillance, prevention, and response equip- and authorities that deal with transportation networks and infra- ment and tactics, often under operational difficulties and budget structure. Indeed, organizations regularly face the need to allocate limitations. In this context, this paper focuses on S&RA for the their limited funds to different programs/projects, often satisfying upgrade and expansion of security equipment in transportation conflicting objectives and interests (Zanakis et al. 1995). Examples infrastructures and proposes a nonlinear programming model in the transportation sector include optimal programming of main- and a metaheuristics algorithm for solving it. A comprehensive tenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MR&R) activities in pavements application of the model for the Athens, Greece, metro system and bridges and the replacement of transit fleets. The correspond- is also offered. The remainder of the paper is structured as follows: ing S&RA problem can be formally described as follows (Zanakis A subsequent section offers a comprehensive overview of S&RA et al. 1995): “Consider a set of alternative programs/projects, with methods and techniques and their applications in different areas of a quantified benefit assigned to each program/project. The S&RA transportation. Then, the S&RA model for the problem at hand is problem focuses on the decision on which project to fund and in presented along with the proposed solution method. An application what amount. This decision is subject to constraints and dictated of the model for the case of the Athens metro system is provided, by—often conflicting—objectives.” and results are discussed. The paper concludes with model appli- Security in transportation has become a topic of primary cation insights and proposals for future research in the area. importance in recent years primarily because of attacks against transportation systems, such as the cases of the Tokyo, London, ’ and Madrid, Spain, metro systems and Moscow s Domodedovo air- Background port. Indeed, concentration of passengers in confined transportation facilities along with the significant role of transportation in modern Selection and resource allocation are the final steps of the so-called societies and the economy make transportation systems attractive project-evaluation process; previous steps include identification of candidate projects, determination of evaluation criteria, and es- 1Lecturer, School of Civil Engineering, Institute of Structural Analysis timation of benefits and costs per alternative project. As a problem, and Seismic Research, National Technical Univ. of Athens, 9, Iroon S&RA have been extensively investigated in the literature, with Polytechniou St., Zografou Campus, GR-15780 Athens, Greece. E-mail: excellent surveys offered by Zanakis et al. (1995), Heidenberger [email protected] 2 and Stummer (1999), and a reference textbook by Bower (1986). Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Heriot-Watt University on 07/30/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved. Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Civil Engineering, Dept. of Transportation Planning and Engineering, National Technical Univ. of In this section, an overview of the methods and techniques used Athens, 5, Iroon Polytechniou St., Zografou Campus, GR-15780 Athens, for S&RA of projects is provided, and relevant work in the field Greece (corresponding author). E-mail: [email protected] of civil infrastructure and transportation is then reviewed. 3Associate Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Dept. of Transporta- tion Planning and Engineering, National Technical Univ. of Athens, 5, Iroon Polytechniou Str., Zografou Campus, GR-15780 Athens, Greece. Selection and Resource Allocation Methods and E-mail: [email protected] Techniques Note. This manuscript was submitted on December 15, 2011; approved Typically, the process of S&RA consists of two tasks: (1) measure- on May 1, 2012; published online on May 3, 2012. Discussion period open until September 1, 2013; separate discussions must be submitted ment of benefits and (2) optimal selection/allocation of resources. for individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Management The first task pertains to determining the benefits associated in Engineering, Vol. 29, No. 2, April 1, 2013. © ASCE, ISSN 0742- with each alternative project; these benefits, in turn, refer to 597X/2013/2-172-182/$25.00. establishing and quantifying various decision/evaluation criteria 172 / JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT IN ENGINEERING © ASCE / APRIL 2013 J. Manage. Eng. 2013.29:172-182. (Zanakis et al. 1995). The second task refers to optimally selecting thickness for the case of a highway project) as independent projects and allocating funds under budget constraints. variables for cost estimation. For more information on project cost estimation, recent work has been undertaken by Anderson et al. Benefit Measurement (2009), Tan and Mackwasa (2010), El Asmar et al. (2011), and Various approaches have been proposed in the literature for Bokor (2011). measuring project benefits, These approaches may be categorized into four groups (Heidenberger and Stummer 1999): comparative Optimal Selection of Projects and Allocation of Resources approaches, scoring approaches, traditional economic models, and Once project benefits are measured, their ranking becomes readily group-decision techniques. available. However, the question regarding how to select projects Comparative approaches refer to pairwise comparison of proj- under budgetary, time, and other constraints still remains largely ects using either an additive or a ratio scale. Although these meth- unaddressed. Further, the amount of funds to be allocated to each ods often require a large number of project-to-project comparisons project often becomes an additional item to be derived. In this and the need to repeat any measurement when a project is added, context, the prevailing approaches for optimal project selection their advantage is the minimum impact of errors, attributable to the (particularly in the area of transportation) and fund allocation are large number of comparisons involved (Locket and Startford 1987). based on optimization models, and other methods involve decision The most popular among comparative methods is the analytical and game theory, statistical models, and simulation (Heidenberger hierarchy process (AHP), introduced by Saaty (1980). Scoring and Stummer 1999). methods assign an overall benefit measure to each project. Scores Traditional optimization-oriented approaches for S&RA are of alternative projects with respect to each decision criterion are based on mathematical programming models. These models seek determined and then combined to yield the overall project score. to maximize benefits from selected projects under various budget- The simplest among scoring methods is the checklist technique, ary and other constraints. Depending on the nature of the S&RA, in which fulfillment of requirements is examined along with the a variety of linear, integer, and nonlinear specifications may be level of conformation to that requirement. Traditional scoring considered. For instance, linear models assume both linear con- models, on the other hand, use multiple value-assessment scores sumption of resources and benefit contribution of projects as well and weights for each decision criterion. These models are widely as independence of projects (Winston 2003). Conversely, nonlinear applied for measuring project benefits because in most cases they models are used in cases of complex decision problems, implying succeed in offering a consistent ranking of projects (Krawiec 1984). that benefits and constraints are represented by nonlinear objective Utility analysis (often referred to as multiattribute utility analysis) is functions. As for integer programming models, these are intro- an advanced, axiomatically founded scoring method (Heidenberger duced in cases of explicit selection of projects because of their and Stummer 1999). The method