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Prior to September 11, 2001, the Marine Transportation System (MTS) and the business
communities it supports focused on speed, reliability and cost of operation. Security, when
addressed, dealt primarily with keeping cargo safe from theft. A myriad of terrorist threats and
vulnerabilities abound in the new world order. The new paradigm requires a multi-tiered
approach, in terms of new technology development, and in policy at the local, State, Federal and
international levels in order to address the complexity and ambiguity of today’s global maritime
security environment. More than in any other transportation mode, this new security paradigm
must be integrated into the business operations of the MTS in order to achieve both security and
economic gains.
The National Center for Secure and Resilient Maritime Commerce and Coastal Environments
(CSR) brings together a unique set of academic institutions from around the nation and public
and private sector partners with diverse expertise and significant experience in developing new
knowledge, technology products, models, tools, policies & procedures, and training related to
global maritime security and coastal safety. These capabilities will be applied to:
- improve the
security of the MTS and coastal and offshore operations, leveraging security investments to also
improve economic performance;
- improve emergency response to events in the maritime
domain; and
- improve the resiliency of the MTS, offshore operations, and coastal
environments.
The capabilities and experience of the Center’s team, coupled with an array of existing
experimental and computational facilities at the member institutions, will create an enterprise
that is uniquely equipped to develop, evaluate and implement new technologies, policies, and
systems, beginning from collaborative design and moving quickly to experimentation and actual
implementation in the real-world environment. The CSR activities will be guided by a spiral
development approach to solving the complex issues facing the global MTS and our coastal,
island and remote communities. The CSR goal will be at least one major exercise/experiment per
year with the aim to transition the capabilities to an operational system. As the program
develops, we will identify sites for experiments and exercises in areas covered by the CSR
partners, e.g., Miami, Puerto Rico, Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, and the Pacific Basin. We will
remain flexible as we develop the research plan, with the agility to respond quickly to emerging
threats and national needs. Throughout, the member universities will involve undergraduate and
graduate students, and will develop new courses, curricula, and education tools to enable the
training of the next generation of maritime security and coastal safety professionals, including
students and professionals from historically underrepresented groups.
The technologies, systems, procedures, and policy recommendations that will emerge from
CSR will be transformational. For example, systems under development by the partners for
coastal environment observing and forecasting can be converted into a dual-use network that
provides Maritime Domain Awareness in the coastal and maritime approaches of the Exclusive
Economic Zone (EEZ) and extending to the high seas. These and other opportunities for
leveraging existing investments to achieve both security and economic transformational progress
will be pursued. CSR will function as a resource for DHS in all areas of maritime security and
coastal safety, drawing on the expertise of more than 100 PhD-level professionals, with the
geographical and technical diversity that is required in a leading-edge, fast-responding technical
asset to DHS and the nation.
The National Center for Secure and Resilient Maritime Commerce - Stevens Institute
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 Manhattan - post 9/11 view from the harbor.
Fig 1. example of CODAR currents
Fig 2. CODAR array coverage
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