Situation Awareness (SA) is being aware of what is happening around you and understanding what that information means to you now and in the future. It allows you to make successful and timely decisions in a dynamic and complex world. In highly demanding jobs, SA makes the difference between success and failure. When people are required to make critical choices – sometimes at a fast pace – the vast majority of errors that occur are a direct result of failures in situation awareness. 
When situation awareness is poor, the results can be catastrophic – airplanes crash, emergency response teams flounder, power distribution networks go down, critical commercial systems falter – all at a great cost in lives and dollars.
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What is Situation Awareness?

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You Need Situation Awareness for Success

Three Levels of Situation Awareness

Level 1 SA Perceiving critical factors in the environment. Getting the right information when you need it. Level 2 SAUnderstanding what those factors mean, particularly when integrated together in relation to your goals. Putting it all together to get what you really want to know.
Level 3 SAProjecting or anticipating what will happen in the near future. Helping you to anticipate and be proactive.
The higher levels of SA allow people to function in a timely and effective manner, even with very complex and challenging tasks.
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