The federal government’s Government Accountability Office reports there has not been adequate research and planning of the geographic information system, or GIS, which helps assess port security.

Created after the September 11 attacks, a Port Security Assessment Program was designed to evaluate security at the nation’s 55 most economically and militarily strategic ports. In the last two years, the GIS was added to the program.

The GIS is a computer mapping system that adds information “layers” that can easily be updated and retrieved. It is to be completed by February 2005 at the 55 ports

But GAO reported recently that “the EIS is being developed without sufficient up-front work to identify how he system will be expected to perform.”

The report concludes: “The assessment could be of greater benefit if functional requirements for the EIS were more clearly defined, so the Coast Guard could use the assessments to address gaps in security knowledge.”