Scoping, Tailoring, and Abstraction Refinement in the Hazard Assessment Process

Hazard assessment is an engineering activity that produces insight into which states of thing being engineered might be hazardous. In aviation contexts, it is often performed for certification credit at both the aircraft and system levels during the early design phase of the system’s lifecycle. However, novel aircraft paradigms such as urban air mobility (UAM) operations might either violate assumptions on which traditional aviation hazard assessment is based or simply possess attributes that would make other approaches more effective. In this paper, we define the key concepts underpinning hazard assessment and identify the limitations and assumptions inherent in hazard analysis. We analyze popular techniques to show how they embody these key concepts. We identify ways in which hazard assessment may be scoped and tailored to an application. And, using worked examples, we discuss how, where, and why such tailoring might be needed, especially in novel contexts.