Homeland Security Simulation Domain – A Needs Analysis Overview

The effective use of modeling, simulation, and analysis (MSA) applications could greatly enhance our nation’s ability to achieve homeland security goals. The development of MSA applications has been conducted largely on an ad hoc and piecemeal basis. There is very little, if any, coordination of MSA development activities across government agencies, the research community, the commercial software sector, and various standards organizations. Without coordination and appropriate standards, there is little possibility of software re-use or the establishment of reference data sets that meet homeland security needs. A needs analysis for MSA applications is the first step to the identification of standards requirements. NIST is conducting a needs analysis for the Department of Homeland Security in this area. This paper provides a high level overview of a needs analysis for the homeland security simulationmodeling domain. The modeling domain gives an indication about what is being simulated or the dynamics of the simulation, i.e., the ways in which real world behaviors, processes, phenomena, or effects are generated. Major groupings of modeling domains for categorizing simulations include Social Behavior; Physical Phenomenon; Environment; Economic; Organization; Infrastructure System; and Other System, Equipment, and Tool. The paper briefly describes needs for each of these MSA domains.