Findings of the NATO workshop on data fusion technologies for harbour protection

The NATO Security Through Science Program and the Defence Investment Division requested and sponsored the organization of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on the topic of Data Fusion Technologies for Harbour Protection, which was held June 27-July 1, 2005 in Tallinn, Estonia. The goal of the workshop was to facilitate knowledge exchange between technology experts and security policy makers for a better understanding of goals, functions and information requirements of the decision makers as well as of how data fusion technology can enhance the security of harbours. In addition to presentations by experts from the research community on detection and fusion technologies in practice as well as in policy, the workshop program included daily breakout sessions in which participants were given an opportunity to brainstorm on workshop topics in smaller interdisciplinary teams. The working groups: (i) chose a scenario, including threat stages, threat types, threat methods and ranges, and response constraints due to the particular harbour environment; then (ii) identified: (a) requirements (objectives, functions and essential elements of information), (b) technologies (available and future), (c) information available and necessary through sensors and other sources, such as agencies and jurisdiction, (d) methods: detection, identification, situation assessment, prediction. This paper describes the main issues and proposed approaches that were identified by the working groups.