Optimizing the Planning of Remote Construction Sites to Minimize Facility Destruction from Explosive Attacks

Abstract

Remote construction sites, such as oil production facilities and military forward operating bases, are often located in remote and hostile areas that are vulnerable to the threat of explosive attacks. Planners can significantly reduce the destructive effects of explosive attacks targeting these sites by incorporating a number of security measures, including increasing the standoff distance between facilities and the likely location of an explosive device, constructing perimeter blast walls, and hardening facilities. The integration of these site layout security measures increases site construction costs, and accordingly planners need to search for and identify an optimal site layout plan that strikes an optimal balance between the two conflicting objectives of minimizing facility destruction levels and minimizing site construction costs. This paper presents a multiobjective optimization model for optimizing the site layout planning and selection of security measures for remote construction sites. An application example of a remote military base is analyzed to demonstrate the use of the model and its distinctive capability to generate optimal trade-offs between minimizing facility destruction levels from explosive attacks and minimizing site construction costs.