Biosecurity surveillance is the collection, collation, analysis, interpretation and timely dissemination of information on the presence, distribution or prevalence of pests or diseases and the plants or animals that they affect. When undertaken post-border, biosecurity surveillance activities are carried out for a variety of purposes: to achieve market access, to detect new pests and diseases sufficiently early to allow for cost-effective management, to establish the boundaries of a known pest or disease population and to monitor the progress of existing containment or eradication programmes.

In this chapter, we provide a brief overview of many of the theoretical methods and models for designing and evaluating post-border surveillance, but our focus is on the readily applicable tools that have emerged from the theoretical work. Tools range in character from rules of thumb and simple formulae, to simulation models with user-friendly interfaces. We discuss how each tool fits into the post-border surveillance framework, where to locate a particular tool and the contexts in which each tool has been applied.

Hester, S.M, Hauser, C.E. and Kean, J.M. (2017). Tools for designing and evaluating post-border surveillance systems. In A. Robinson, T. Walshe, M. Burgman and M. Nunn (Eds.), Invasive species: risk assessment (pp. 17-52). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.