File:Soft target security- environmental design and the deterrence of terrorist attacks on soft targets in aviation transportation (IA softtargetsecuri1094558317).pdf

Recent attacks on airports exposed an emerging threat to the security of the traveling public, attacks on soft targets. Incidents throughout the world indicate that terrorists, seeking to maximize life loss, and economic and symbolic destruction, have changed their focus to soft targets. The thesis examines plausible deterrence measures through environmental design for crowd protection in the aviation transportation sector. The policies of the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the United States Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration (TSA), are compared to extract best practices for soft target security. Using case analysis of terror attacks on airports in Brussels (2016), Los Angeles (2013), and Glasgow (2007), operational space, deterrence, infrastructure design, and human perception are explored as a means to reduce risk. The thesis finds that new airport environmental design strategies are required to protect crowds, harden the infrastructure, and build resilient structures. The thesis recommends applying environmental design countermeasures in the typically crowded areas of airline ticketing queues, TSA passenger security checkpoints, and baggage areas by changing the adversaries’ perception of opportunistic targets. New risk-assessment models, changes to physical structures, use of new technology including robotics, and the broader use of simulation models are identified as required paths to improve the effective security of soft targets in airports.

Subjects: soft target security; crowd protection; human perception; environmental design; crime prevention through environmental design; CPTED; Transportation Security Administration; aviation security; airport security; Counter-Terrorism Strategy; CONTEST