AAAR 33rd Annual Conference
October 20 - October 24, 2014
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, Florida, USA
Abstract View
DHS Biological Hazard Assessment Research: Characterizing Agents to Inform Risk: A Focus on Aerosols
MATTHEW MOE, Lloyd Hough, Scott White, Department of Homeland Security
Abstract Number: 326 Working Group: Homeland Security
Abstract The 2007 National Strategy for Homeland Security notes that the nation must apply a risk-based framework across all homeland security efforts to identify and assess potential hazards, determine what levels of relative risk are acceptable, and prioritize and allocate resources among homeland security partners to, among other things, respond to and recover from Chemical, Biological, Radiological, or Nuclear (CBRN) incidents. To accomplish this, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employs a suite of risk assessments based on computational models to evaluate a myriad of CBRN scenarios, the results of which inform the allocation of resources to prepare for and respond to such an event. The fidelity of the computational models depend significantly on the quantitative values that are used to describe the characteristics considered. While the majority of these values are derived from published scientific literature, quantitative values describing essential and impactful characteristics of many biological agents such as source terms, decay rates, and infectious doses, remain elusive. The DHS Biological Threat Characterization Program (BTCP) supports these modeling efforts by performing research to allow better models to be developed, and provide more accurate estimates for these and other parameters. An overview of processes used by DHS to identify opportunities for refinement through research, the review and selection process for individual projects, and the strategic research directions anticipated for the aerobiology portfolio will be provided.