The role of Taxonomies
Occurrences are reported by people, who tell either their organisations or competent authorities about their experiences with the goal of improving safety. This means that data comes from all sorts of places and many different formats. When there are so many different sources of information, there are lots of ways to describe the same thing. Bringing together data that has used different definitions makes it very difficult to analyse and draw meaningful conclusions.
Thankfully, many years ago a group of forward-thinking people got together at global level under the guidance of ICAO to develop a common aviation taxonomy. This was called the Accident/ Incident Data Reporting System (or ADREP). Over time the management of this taxonomy at a detailed level has passed to EASA as it forms the basis of the ECCAIRS system. Today, it is know as the ECCAIRS taxonomy and it is a vital building block for sharing data at European Level and beyond.
Learn more about the different attributes and values in the taxonomy and use them in your own reporting and SMS systems.