Situation awareness

Situational awareness or situation awareness, often abbreviated as SA is the understanding of an environment, its elements, and how it changes with respect to time or other factors. It is also defined as the perception of the elements in the environment considering time and space, the understanding of their meaning, and the prediction of their status in the near future. It is also defined as adaptive, externally-directed consciousness focused on acquiring knowledge about a dynamic task environment and directed action within that environment.

Situation awareness is recognized as a critical foundation for successful decision making in many situations, including the ones which involve the protection of human life and property, such as law enforcement, aviation, air traffic control, ship navigation, health care, emergency response, military command and control operations, transmission system operators, self defense, and offshore oil and nuclear power plant management.

Inadequate situation awareness has been identified as one of the primary causal factors in accidents attributed to human error. According to Endsley’s situation awareness theory, when someone meets a dangerous situation, he needs an appropriate and a precise decision-making process which includes pattern recognition and matching, formation of sophisticated frameworks and fundamental knowledge that aids correct decision making.

The formal definition of situational awareness is often described as three ascending levels:

1. Perception of the elements in the environment,
2. Comprehension or understanding of the situation, and
3. Projection of future status.

People with the highest levels of situational awareness not only perceive the relevant information for their goals and decisions, but are also able to integrate that information to understand its meaning or significance, and are able to project likely or possible future scenarios. These higher levels of situational awareness are critical for proactive decision making in demanding environments.

Three aspects of situational awareness have been the focus in research: situational awareness states, situational awareness systems, and situational awareness processes. Situational awareness states refers to the actual level of awareness people have of the situation. Situational awareness systems refers to technologies that are developed to support situational awareness in many environments. Situational awareness processes refers to the updating of situational awareness states, and what guides the moment-to-moment change of situational awareness.