Latek Et al.: A Spatial Multiagent Model of Border Security for the Arizona–Sonora Borderland

Maciej M.Latek, Seyed M. Mussavi Rizi,Andrew Crooks, and Mark Fraser

We report the results of the first sprint of a project to build decision support tools for border security that incorporate interactions among border security forces, smugglers and the population and represent integrated technology architectures made up of fixed and mobile sensor and surveillance networks. To demonstrate the feasibility of social simulation for the security of the Southwestern U.S. border, we first describe open-source data on Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and smuggling organizations, replicating for 2009 the landscape of gateway organizations and cartels in Sonora along with the border security architecture for the Tuscon sector of the CBP. We then recount the architecture of the model, connecting a disaggregated view of these organizations to a high-fidelity representation of the physical environment and sensor networks. Finally, we discuss model dynamics and validity, and the generalizability of our approach.

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