Situational Awareness in Context

In this paper we analyze the relationship between context and situational awareness with the aim to get a better understanding of how context information influences situation assessment. The analysis is based on previous research on situational awareness, context and situations. We show how situation assessment could be specified more detailed with regards to sub-processes through investigating the components of a situation. Events are introduced as situational elements in themselves. The role of context in situation assessment is also analyzed and so is the information that can be treated as contextual. A case study is presented that relates the findings to the monitoring of oil well drilling. Our main contribution is an analysis of the situation assessment process and how it operates on and manipulates the components of the situation. Another contribution is the case study of how the findings apply in monitoring of the oil well drilling situation.