Assessing distributed situation awareness in socio-technical systems with RiskSOAP

Abstract

This research work introduces the Risk Situation Awareness Provision (RiskSOAP) methodology. The concept of ‘risk SA provision’ reflects the inherent, according to the system design and development, capability of each system part to provide its agent with SA about the presence of system threats and vulnerabilities, possibly leading to accidents. The RiskSOAP methodology is accompanied by its corresponding indicator, which is used to measure the capability of a complex socio-technical system to provide its agents with Situation Awareness (SA) about the presence of its threats and vulnerabilities. The RiskSOAP indicator also enables analysts to assess Distributed SA (DSA). RiskSOAP is applied to the socio-technical system involved in the Überlingen mid-air collision accident as a demonstration of how to apply the methodology and calculate the corresponding indicator.