Objectives: Current study explores the potential of the safety rating scale in order to determine the surplus value for evidence based practise. This study wants to contribute to this knowledge gape by exploring the safety scale by analysing the change between two safety ratings. First, the absolute change in safety is investigated. Secondly the study explores to what extent family background characteristics and case management characteristics determine the extent of change in perceived safety. Materials and Methods: The study analysed 105 Dutch child protection cases who had registration files with filled out LIRIK checklist, Action Plan and additional baseline safety and end safety measure as perceived by case managers. Results: On average perceived safety increased from an insufficient level to sufficient level. Significant regression coefficients with larger changes for primary school children (6 - 12 years) and lower changes for children within the ‘socio economic problems cluster’. The results reveal significant vulnerability for preschool children and families attending the socio-economic cluster due to limited improvement. Conclusion: According to this study the safety measure can be of value to outcome monitoring. The safety measure is a practical measure that reflects on the current state of safety within a family according to professionals and can be used on several occasions during case management. In addition, on aggregated level pre and post measures can be analysed for quality management purpose. Further exploration of this measure is needed. Publishers article: https://www.ecronicon.com/ecpe/ECPE-10-00873.php
A literature review, which was conducted during the research project “Measuring Safety in Aviation – Developing Metrics for Safety Management Systems”, identified several problems and challenges regarding safety performance metrics in aviation. The findings from this review were used to create a framework for interviewing 13 companies in order to explore how safety performance is measured in the industry. The results from the surveys showed a wide variety of approaches for assessing the level of safety. The companies encounter and/or recognise problematic areas in practice when implementing their safety management. The findings from the literature review are partially confirmed and it seems that the current ways of measuring safety performance are not as straight forward as it might be assumed. Further research is recommended to explore alternative methods for measuring aviation safety performance.
Although reengineering is strategically advantageous fororganisations in order to keep functional and sustainable, safety must remain apriority and respective efforts need to be maintained. This paper suggeststhe combination of soft system methodology (SSM) and Pareto analysison the scope of safety management performance evaluation, and presents theresults of a survey, which was conducted in order to assess the effectiveness,efficacy and ethicality of the individual components of an organisation’s safetyprogram. The research employed quantitative and qualitative data and ensureda broad representation of functional managers and safety professionals, whocollectively hold the responsibility for planning, implementing and monitoringsafety practices. The results showed that SSM can support the assessment ofsafety management performance by revealing weaknesses of safety initiatives,and Pareto analysis can underwrite the prioritisation of the remedies required.The specific methodology might be adapted by any organisation that requires adeep evaluation of its safety management performance, seeks to uncover themechanisms that affect such performance, and, under limited resources, needsto focus on the most influential deficiencies.
‘Dieren in de dijk’ aims to address the issue of animal burrows in earthen levees, which compromise the integrity of flood protection systems in low-lying areas. Earthen levees attract animals that dig tunnels and cause damages, yet there is limited scientific knowledge on the extent of the problem and effective approaches to mitigate the risk. Recent experimental research has demonstrated the severe impact of animal burrows on levee safety, raising concerns among levee management authorities. The consortium's ambition is to provide levee managers with validated action perspectives for managing animal burrows, transitioning from a reactive to a proactive risk-based management approach. The objectives of the project include improving failure probability estimation in levee sections with animal burrows and enhancing risk mitigation capacity. This involves understanding animal behavior and failure processes, reviewing existing and testing new deterrence, detection, and monitoring approaches, and offering action perspectives for levee managers. Results will be integrated into an open-access wiki-platform for guidance of professionals and in education of the next generation. The project's methodology involves focus groups to review the state-of-the-art and set the scene for subsequent steps, fact-finding fieldwork to develop and evaluate risk reduction measures, modeling failure processes, and processing diverse quantitative and qualitative data. Progress workshops and collaboration with stakeholders will ensure relevant and supported solutions. By addressing the knowledge gaps and providing practical guidance, the project aims to enable levee managers to effectively manage animal burrows in levees, both during routine maintenance and high-water emergencies. With the increasing frequency of high river discharges and storm surges due to climate change, early detection and repair of animal burrows become even more crucial. The project's outcomes will contribute to a long-term vision of proactive risk-based management for levees, safeguarding the Netherlands and Belgium against flood risks.
The integration of renewable energy resources, controllable devices and energy storage into electricity distribution grids requires Decentralized Energy Management to ensure a stable distribution process. This demands the full integration of information and communication technology into the control of distribution grids. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) is used to communicate measurements and commands between individual components and the control server. In the future this control is especially needed at medium voltage and probably also at the low voltage. This leads to an increased connectivity and thereby makes the system more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. According to the research agenda NCSRA III, the energy domain is becoming a prime target for cyber-attacks, e.g., abusing control protocol vulnerabilities. Detection of such attacks in SCADA networks is challenging when only relying on existing network Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs). Although these systems were designed specifically for SCADA, they do not necessarily detect malicious control commands sent in legitimate format. However, analyzing each command in the context of the physical system has the potential to reveal certain inconsistencies. We propose to use dedicated intrusion detection mechanisms, which are fundamentally different from existing techniques used in the Internet. Up to now distribution grids are monitored and controlled centrally, whereby measurements are taken at field stations and send to the control room, which then issues commands back to actuators. In future smart grids, communication with and remote control of field stations is required. Attackers, who gain access to the corresponding communication links to substations can intercept and even exchange commands, which would not be detected by central security mechanisms. We argue that centralized SCADA systems should be enhanced by a distributed intrusion-detection approach to meet the new security challenges. Recently, as a first step a process-aware monitoring approach has been proposed as an additional layer that can be applied directly at Remote Terminal Units (RTUs). However, this allows purely local consistency checks. Instead, we propose a distributed and integrated approach for process-aware monitoring, which includes knowledge about the grid topology and measurements from neighboring RTUs to detect malicious incoming commands. The proposed approach requires a near real-time model of the relevant physical process, direct and secure communication between adjacent RTUs, and synchronized sensor measurements in trustable real-time, labeled with accurate global time-stamps. We investigate, to which extend the grid topology can be integrated into the IDS, while maintaining near real-time performance. Based on topology information and efficient solving of power flow equation we aim to detect e.g. non-consistent voltage drops or the occurrence of over/under-voltage and -current. By this, centrally requested switching commands and transformer tap change commands can be checked on consistency and safety based on the current state of the physical system. The developed concepts are not only relevant to increase the security of the distribution grids but are also crucial to deal with future developments like e.g. the safe integration of microgrids in the distribution networks or the operation of decentralized heat or biogas networks.
Aanleiding De luchtvaart wordt steeds veiliger. Toch zijn er alleen al in Nederland jaarlijks zo'n 11.000 issues met luchtvaartveiligheid. Wereldwijd vinden er elke dag ongelukken plaats die leiden tot schade aan vliegtuigen. Om de veiligheid verder te verbeteren is er nieuwe internationale regelgeving opgesteld. Onder deze regels moeten de maatschappijen alle incidenten en ongelukken analyseren en zo veiligheidsrisico's identificeren nog voordat deze zich voordoen. Het probleem is dat kleine en middelgrote luchtvaartmaatschappijen onvoldoende vliegbewegingen maken om genoeg goede data hiervoor te hebben. Doelstelling De centrale vraag die de onderzoekers in dit RAAK-project willen beantwoorden: Wat is de relatie tussen veiligheidsmanagement en veiligheidsperformance van luchtvaartmaatschappijen? Het onderzoek wil kleine en middelgrote luchtvaartmaatschappijen helpen bij het meten van de veiligheid van hun bedrijf, zonder dat ze grote hoeveelheden veiligheidsdata tot hun beschikking hebben. Het onderzoek zal geschikte veiligheidsindicatoren identificeren, een longlist ontwikkelen met meetwaarden voor safetymanagement, en een shortlist genereren en valideren van bruikbare meetwaarden. Deze kennis wordt vertaald in een online dashboard voor de industrie, zodat de veiligheid objectiever beoordeeld kan worden. Beoogde resultaten Een concreet resultaat van dit project is een online dashboard waarmee kleine en middelgrote luchtvaartmaatschappijen hun veiligheid kunnen beoordelen, inclusief handleiding. Er zullen masterclasses veiligheid worden georganiseerd voor de luchtvaartindustrie. Het projectteam zal de opgedane kennis verspreiden via wetenschappelijke artikelen in relevante peer-reviewed tijdschriften, een website, presentaties bij bedrijven en tijdens bijeenkomsten, en een afsluitende conferentie.
