The Role of Information in Managing Wildlife Hazards

If there is one thing that all Airport Operations employees will agree on, it is that there is no such thing as certainty. As Arthur Randolph, a Saturn 5 scientist put it " You want a valve that doesn't leak and you try everything to possible to develop one. But the real world provides you with a leaky valve. You have to determine how much leaking you can tolerate". The same could be said of aerodrome safety and has led to the central practice underlying all airport operations that is often called the Safety Management System or Process. The "Safety Management System" has many broad definitions and there is little agreement on what constitutes best practice. However, it is generally agreed that such systems involve developing and implementing processes, measuring their performance, evaluating the results and then feeding back decisions into the process development.

Risk is not a new concept, the Ancient Greeks knew the future was much more than a mirror of the past. However, it took many centuries before probability theory became useful for anything but the simplest of games. Games of chance are different to the skill of running an airfield. The difference is INFORMATION and DECISIONS.

Good QUALITY information is critical if effective decisions are to be made about the broader wildlife control programme involving processes, people and technology. The information needs to be timely, accurate and complete if dispersal techniques are to be deployed, or attractants removed, in anything other than a haphazard manner. Although the benefits of quality information up front are difficult to measure, all of the downstream effort and resource expended is dependent upon it.

Also critical is that there is a good QUANTITY of information. This is not just to say that a larger number of data points gives you a clearer picture of the operational environment. By definition, operational teams are rarely recording more than brief snippets of information about the hazardous environment so it is especially important that it is only when a clear picture emerges that decisions are made. Traditionally there has rightly been a large reliance upon trend analysis, but we should also challenge our assumptions and rethink what is possible in order to build this picture more regularly.

This is why ClickAirport is working with clients to implement mobile computing networks to assist in the execution of their primary safety responsibility. Not only can better quality and greater quantities of data be captured and analysed but a robust database can demonstrate the effectiveness of wildlife detection and removal. As part of a full wildlife control initiative, such systems improve safety, prove due diligence, ensure compliance and manage risk. We invite airports to see what a difference mobile computing can make to the visibility of their operational risks and accountability of their mitigating activities.

Contact us to see how we can help you. info@clickairport.com