Editorial Note
This will be moved under the shared coding rules of the AIXM coding space. It will provide general coding rules for Events. Rules that are specific for the coding of Digital NOTAM will be as much as possible provided in the Digital NOTAM Specification, not here.
Introduction
The Event Extension adds to AIXM a feature dedicated to modelling data associated with operational situation that results in the temporary or permanent change of the properties of one or more aeronautical information features. Such operational situations can range from a simple runway closure or navaid unavailability to a complex change of the route structure or a military exercise. The use of Event features in relation with other aeronautical information feature changes has two main purposes:
- to allow relating the changes that have a common cause or a common operational goal and to provide relevant metadata, such as compliance with a predefined change scenario, relation with other events, etc.
- to facilitate the provision of change notifications, for example in pre-flight information bulletins. This is currently done through NOTAM. However, even in the absence of NOTAM, the Event feature would still provide a readable description (summary) for pre-flight bulletin entry and other similar briefing purpose.
The ‘event’ concept is used in this specification to cover both temporary situations (such as a navaid that is unserviceable) and permanent updates of the aeronautical data (such as information about a new runway).
No specific message was created for encompassing an Event and the associated data. The AIXMBasicMessage can be used for this purpose, because the Event feature is also an abstract AIXMFeature. Thus, it can be used as a child of hasMember elements.
Coding rules and guidelines
The Event class is a regular AIXM feature, therefore the general coding rules for temporality, geographical and geometrical data, etc. are applied. However, the Event class has several particularities, which require some specific coding rules to be followed:
ToDo
Explain the use case for the "summary" attribute
- A textual/formatted description of the Event could be used as ePIB entry, even if there is no NOTAM issued for the Event. That would open the path for the NOTAM system revision - allow certain events to be coded only digitally, without having to be issued as NOTAM. If necessary, such events could still be included in preflight briefings or other reports intended for operational staff, using the "summary" property to provide the text.
- Also useful for complex AIP SUP - the PIB could entry could be a short summary of the changes. See for example this discussion on AIS Agora: https://www.eurocontrol.int/agor/BrowseMessages.do?browseAction=browseSearchedMessage&messageId=24073#24073