Post No.1 21 November 2013 Situational Awareness

This will be my first in what I hope to be a series of blogs intended to help enhance the readers awareness in matters of personal security awareness.  My blog theme is Situational Awareness or SA.  I will offer a beginning general definition of SA.

I would normally want to ensure that the reader has an understanding of the meaning of the subject before getting into the discussion.  The definition of SA is subject to application, subject to specialization and subject to debate.  Thus, there is a lot to it, and more than I want to begin with.  As a result I have placed the Wikipedia definition, the only one that I will offer at this time, at the end,of today's posting.  Suffice it to say, there are many elements and many opinions.
One of the most consistent and active uses for SA can be found in the world of military Specials Operation (SEALS, Delta Force, British SAS, Police SWAT, Government Spies and other similar fields of work.

Each of those bring their own events to the issue that would apply to the definition.  For you, the citizen, the parent, the vulnerable young person, the person living or traveling alone, the untrained urban resident...etc,  we can establish a simple definition.

Our working definition:  SA is your practice of methods to open your mind, body and actions that prepare you for the challenges of the unknown threats and hazards in your environment and activities.  There are more, but we need to move on.

Is it possible for you to mitigate the threats that can confront you in this world of Burglars, Armed and Unarmed robbers, Thieves, Terrorists, accidents brought on by the actions of others, and on and on?  My answer is yes.
How?  Quite simple, but perhaps a bit challenging, you have to first recognize your vulnerability, commit to take actions to reduce those vulnerabilities, and practice, practice and practice.  This practice can include reading this and other useful sources of awareness information from trained experts on the subject.  Also by beginning a practice of actions to improve your knowledge of what brings you awareness.

In the past but to a lessor extent in these present days of GPS devices, you would never begin a long travel to an unfamiliar location without first studying the route, packing the necessary clothing and accessories and preparing your method of travel.  That is a minimal form of SA preparation.  That is smart awareness.
In the world of military Special Operations (SO), an Operator, one of those SO personnel, is specially and uniquely trained, appropriately equipped and specifically prepared for what he, or she, will be doing.  This is the same thing.
In the world of spies where they must face many obstacles and threats, they plan their every move, never doing things off the cuff.  Their every move is based on intensive training background.  They will plan out the most mundane and seemingly normal activity.  This is operating in SA, for spies and operators.
Now it is true that you don't live in a war zone.  And you are not sneaking about in an unfriendly country hoping to get someone to betray their home country.  But based on the crimes we are experiencing in our big cities...we need to be more aware.

So, that's the pitch.  I will follow this up with specifics on a variety of areas, with suggestions and recommendations.  If you are interested, I hope you get something out of the information.

Source: Wikipedia

SITUATIONAL AWARENESS - defined

Although numerous definitions of situation awareness have been proposed, Endsley's definition (1995b), "the perception of elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future," is firmly established and widely accepted. While some definitions are specific to the environment from which they were adapted, Endsley's definition is applicable across multiple task domains. 

Several other definitions have been suggested, generally restating the same themes:

"knowing what is going on so you can figure out what to do" (Adam, 1983)
"accessibility of a comprehensive and coherent situation representation which is continuously being updated in accordance with the results of recurrent situation assessments" (Sarter & Woods, 1991) 

"the combining of new information with existing knowledge in working memory and the development of a composite picture of the situation along with projections of future status and subsequent decisions as to appropriate courses of action to take" (Fracker, 1991b)

"the continuous extraction of environmental information along with integration of this information with previous knowledge to form a coherent mental picture, and the end use of that mental picture in directing further perception and anticipating future need" (Dominguez, Vidulich, Vogel, & McMillan, 1994)

"adaptive, externally-directed consciousness that has as its products knowledge about a dynamic task environment and directed action within that environment" (Smith & Hancock, 1995)

"what you need to know not to be surprised" (Jeannot, Kelly, & Thompson, 2003)
"keeping track of what is going on around you in a complex, dynamic environment" (Moray, 2005, p. 4)

The "aim of efficient situation awareness is to keep the operator tightly coupled to the dynamics of the environment" (Moray, 2005, p. 4)

"the ability to maintain a constant, clear mental picture of relevant information and the tactical situation including friendly and threat situations as well as terrain" (Dostal, 2007)

Situation awareness is a state achieved when information that is qualitatively and quantitatively determined by given configuration as suitable for assumed role is made available to stakeholder by engaging them in appropriate information exchange patterns. (Sorathia, 2008)[6]