Dealing with Adverse Weather Conditions by Enhanced Collaborative Decision Making in a TAM APOC

Abstract

The paper will provide an insight into enhanced collaborative decision making being conducted in adverse weather conditions in a simulated Oslo Airport environment within the framework of Total Airport Management research as it is being conducted by Europe’s ambitious Single European Sky ATM Research program (SESAR2020) as project PJ.04. SESAR 2020 is operated in two defined program waves, wave 1 covering the years 2016-2019 and wave 2 following until 2022. The paper will focus on a set of two out of seven V2 level validation exercises that are conducted in wave 1 of PJ.04’s Solution 2 (PJ.04-02), addressing concepts for Collaborative Airport Performance Management. The key aim of PJ.04-02 is to develop procedures, mechanisms and tools to support stakeholder groups that are cooperatively conducting airport operations, providing enhanced multi-stakeholder decision support especially in adverse conditions, such as bad weather, strikes, or unforeseen events such as runway blockages. In the Oslo Airport environment extreme snowy winter conditions are a major reason for performance degradation of airport operations. An enhanced integration of stakeholder actions and collaborative operations planning is expected to provide performance benefits. The philosophy of Collaborative Decision Making advocated by SESAR is that of ‘consensus’ building amongst the different airport stakeholders through a common impact assessment and a structured solution finding process with a mutually agreed solution. The goal is to have shared situation awareness and a collaborative problem solving approach leading to better, earlier and therefore more stable solutions. Orchestrated by a moderator, the so-called APOC supervisor, the global impact assessment is supported by each stakeholder assessing the impact on their own operations, documented in an electronic Impact and corresponding Solution Message. The validation and assessment of the underlying conceptual approach to collaborative airport performance management in adverse conditions requests for an artificial airport environment. In contrast to a live environment the simulated reality allows for any necessary changes in weather situation, traffic patterns or support system composition. The target level for the validation experiments is E-OCVM V2, requiring the simulators to allow for an operational concept feasibility assessment while providing simulation of all airport processes under consideration. APOC stakeholders’ support systems and interconnected airline operation back offices need to be connected to the central simulation database, ideally by standardized interfaces. The objective assessment of benefits credited to specific operational improvements under consideration of the validation exercises PJ.04-02.V2.04 and PJ.04-02.V2.09 requires a stepwise approach in which the functionality and system complexity is consecutively enhanced. The baseline was represented by the results achieved by SESAR 1, providing an APOC and basic processes and support system functionality. The functionality of the V2.04 setup reflected the SESAR 2020 solution regarding advanced decision support, providing dynamic Total Airport Demand and Capacity Balancing alongside a guided enhanced collaborative decision making process and enhanced meteorological forecasts by weather alerts. The V2.09 solution setup provides enhanced information support by further enhancing the functionality by provision of sophisticated operational and performance dashboard information, taking into account probabilities for additional diverted traffic. Two exercise simulation runs were executed for each setup, subjecting the Oslo operators with different meteorological phenomena and resulting operational challenges. The PJ.04-02 validation objectives were broken down into exercise specific objectives, allowing for an impartial feasibility assessment based on objective metrics and qualitative human performance criteria. Preliminary exercise analysis results indicate a well-received conceptual approach, the stepwise functionality enhancement complying with benefit increase expectations.