21. A Planning Support System for Terror-Resistant Urban Communities

The shocking terrorist attacks that took place in New York (2001) and London (2005) have raised serious concerns about the safety of cities and the need for identifying potential threats and preparing preventive measures. There is a gap in the literature, where on the one hand, planning for terror is discussed at the federal level (large scope), and on the other hand, at a site-specific level (small scope). The fact is that there is very little planning research at the urban community level (medium scope). The research presented here aims to start to fill this gap by developing a Community Evacuation Planning Support System (CE-PSS) to aid urban communities identify likely community terror targets and shelters.The CE-PSS was developed using ArcGIS^® 9.2 and two extensions – ESRI’s^® Network Analyst and Placeways’™ CommunityViz^®. By comparing the capacity and location of potential targets with that of potential shelters, shortcomings in a community’s readiness for terror attacks can be detected. With such knowledge, planners, citizens, and community leaders can address these issues in revising their comprehensive plans. As planners are charged with paying special attention to the long-term and interrelated implications of their decisions, preparing for possible terror attack is an essential consideration in today’s planning paradigm.