Tampa Bay, Florida UASI
Client since: 2004

Challenge

Like many Sunbelt regions, the Tampa Bay UASI has experienced explosive growth, including an expanding population of more than 2.5 million and 15 million visitors each year. One-third of the state’s high tech workforce is employed in the region, which boasts many other types of industries, from biomedical manufacturing to shrimping. The region also houses Florida’s largest port and, through the convergence of major interstates and highways, serves as a transportation hub for the state. In order to protect its diverse critical infrastructure and population, the Tampa Bay UASI sought to establish a regional approach to risk management.

Solution

The Tampa Bay UASI turned to Digital Sandbox for a solution that would allow its many jurisdictions to share information while compartmentalizing data based on user roles and access permissions. Digital Sandbox’s solution included:

• Region-wide risk methodology for analyzing threats, assets, and security as well as evaluating the factors that drive risk
• Risk-based approach to prioritizing scarce resources
• Dynamic and scalable method for computing key risk indices and metrics that accounts for uncertainty
• Site Profiler® enterprise-wide risk management system to enable integrated planning, management, and execution
• “Concept of Operations” to define how stakeholders use information and tools to perform key risk management functions at all geographic levels (e.g., site, local, state, regional, national)

Result

Digital Sandbox’s solution enabled the Tampa Bay UASI to develop a common operational picture of the region’s critical infrastructure and connect users across organizational boundaries for integrated planning, management, and execution.  As a result, the region was able to implement their risk management goals, including:

• Developing metrics for ranking resource allocation, prioritization, and analysis
• Establishing a risk baseline for year-to-year comparison
• Aligning risks to target capabilities and streamlining its risk management program to better mitigate risks
• Quantifying the affect of intelligence on the region’s infrastructure through threat analysis across a common threat baseline (CBRNE)
• Region-wide risk methodology for analyzing threats, assets, and security as well as evaluating the factors that drive risk

Using the data and analytics in its Site Profiler® system, the region is implementing the National Infrastructure Protection Program (NIPP) within the UASI. This program includes a total inventory of regional assets and key resources and a risk summary for the UASI. This will allow the region to capture and organize additional preparedness and prevention information as well as establish a regional approach for risk optimization.