The concept of risk situation awareness provision: Towards a new approach for assessing the DSA about the threats and vulnerabilities of complex socio-technical systems

Situation Awareness (SA) is a widely cited and extensively reviewed concept. The context in which SA is examined herein is the complex socio-technical. Hence, the main focus is on Distributed Situation Awareness (DSA) and more precisely on the enhancement and degradation of the awareness regarding the threats and vulnerabilities that the system may possibly encounter. Specifically, by adopting the notion that safety and awareness are inherent and emergent properties of complex socio-technical systems, this paper introduces the novel concept of “risk SA provision”. It is also discussed that the risk SA provision capability is dynamic by nature. Lastly, the Überlingen mid-air collision accident is used to demonstrate that hazard analysis techniques can be employed to create a more detailed image of what constitutes the 'ideal' socio-technical system in terms of risk SA provision capabilities. Resting on safety science and control theory, this work suggests a list of system elements and characteristics, which enhance information flow, retrieval, and dissemination and contribute to maintaining the system in an 'aware' and safe state. It is also argued that since those system elements are tangible, it seems possible to found a new DSA assessment approach on the measurement of the risk SA provision capabilities of the system.