The Role of Communication and Engagement in Airport Noise Management (original) (raw)
Related papers
2020
Environmental noise from aviation represents a significant health burden for citizens and a major constraint to airport development. Industry has responded through noise abatement interventions, however research conducted in the ANIMA Project suggests non-acoustic factors are central to the human health response to noise, and that many of these factors can be influenced by airports engaging with their communities. This paper presents the results of a series of case studies seeking to understand the state of the art in noise communications undertaken by European Member State airports, comparing them to what the literature suggests is 'Best Practice'. Current practices are found to be comprehensive, but lacking in a number of key areas, suggesting the industry can enhance the quality of its communication activities and have a positive influence on the role of non-acoustic factors in driving noise annoyance.
Critical Assessment of Aviation Noise Communication Strategies in the European Union
2019
Growing awareness of the negative externalities of aviation has led to increasing objections to airport development, notably to expansion. This can be challenging for airport operators - particularly in regions where air traffic is growing rapidly, or where expansion is sought. In response, the air transport industry has gone to great lengths to reduce the impact of noise. However, these efforts are not always translated into reductions in noise annoyance. An EU Horizon 2020 funded research project, Aviation Noise Impact Management through Novel Approaches (ANIMA), looked to address this gap by developing new methodologies, approaches and tools to manage and mitigate the impact of aviation noise. Specifically, this paper reviews current practice in relation to airport communication and engagement activities in relation to noise. The paper reviews guidance provided by the aviation industry on public participation, finding that although the requirement for communication is made clear,...
A Review of Non-Acoustic Measures to Handle Community Response to Noise around Airports
Current Pollution Reports, 2017
It seems obvious that the noise levels in local communities surrounding airports influences the level of acceptance of an airport. What is not so evident is the effect of nonacoustic factors that increase the societal rejection, like the lack of sensitivity and empathy from the authorities and airport managers, the lack of trust in them, the lack of information and transparency, the perception of being excluded from the decision making and so on. Complementary to the traditional strategies based on the reduction of noise exposure, a community engagement and involvement approach brings new possibilities to manage noise around airports, trying to exploit the non-acoustic factors that have negatively affected the community response. Building trust among the stakeholders is a key factor in this strategy, and it must be based on a long-term, honest, and transparent two-way communication. In the last decade, the huge growth of the information and communication technologies has opened new opportunities that the aviation organizations and stakeholders are starting to explore in depth trying to reduce the degree of rejection of the airport, which may compromise the utilization of existing and future infrastructure. In this review, we make a short introduction on aircraft noise health effects, to focus annoyance and the influence that non-acoustic factors on it. Then, we describe the basis of community engagement as a parallel approach to mitigate noise issues around airports, setting the focus on the noise metrics and the involvement techniques that must be implemented to engage the community.
INTER-NOISE and NOISE-CON Congress and Conference Proceedings
The current study presents the analysis of seven airport exemplification case studies undertaken in the European project "Aviation Noise Impact Management through Novel Approaches - ANIMA". Best practices related to aircraft noise management at airports in individual airport contexts were implemented and evaluated. Case studies on communication and community engagement in airport noise management were investigated at Heathrow (Great Britain), Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Rotterdam The Hague (The Netherlands) airports. For Zaporizhzhia (Ukraine) and Iasi (Romania) airports, the implementation of interventions related to land use planning was examined. The interdependencies between noise and emissions were studied for Cluj (Romania) and Catania (Italy) airports. All case studies were performed under the scope of the corresponding national legislation and guidelines. Individual characteristics of airport operations were taken into account. The case studies were aligned with expec...
2021
The health implications of aviation noise are well documented and often represent a significant barrier to ambitions for growth of the sector, or for airport development. Legislation exists to help manage and mitigate the impacts of such noise, however the transposition of such regulations into European Member State law differs from state to state as does the efficacy of such measures. This paper presents the findings of a series of elite stakeholder interviews with aviation noise stakeholders to determine the efficacy of current noise management approaches, and to identify ways in which noise could be better managed in the future. The research is part of ANIMA, a Horizon 2020 funded research project that aims to better understand noise impact mitigation in the EU, with the aim of developing new methodologies, approaches and tools to manage and mitigate the impact of aviation noise, enhancing the capability to respond to the growing traffic demand. The elite interviews identified a ...
Journal of Transport …, 2011
Airport capacity continues to be one of the air transport issues that creates the most concern. The major environmental constraint for airports is the noise generated by aircraft. Annoyed communities living around airports have become a limiting factor for airport capacity and operability. This paper brings together the existing literature in the fields of airport environmental capacity, non-acoustic factors of noise annoyance, NIMBYism and environmental conflicts. We also analyze the socio-environmental conflict between Barcelona airport and the community of Gavà Mar. This case shows that the lack of trust between parties, the impossibility of predicting noise exposure, the absence of opportunities for civil society to speak and the difficulty of accessing relevant information foster annoyance and mobilization in the communities that live around the airport. In addition, it is shown that, in such a situation, commu-nities' reactions can evolve to a post-NIMBY stage in which proactive attitudes replace reactive ones.
The efficiency of noise mitigation measures at European airports
Transportation Research Procedia, 2017
Current studies predict that commercial air traffic will further grow rapidly in the next years. Consequently, airports are confronted with enormous challenges, not only in terms of optimized operations but also in terms of generated noise. In the last years the local population has become very noise-conscious and this noise awareness will be further intensified with the growing air traffic. The purpose of this paper is to identify whether the noise regulations have been fully applied by the airports with the goal to further reduce or mitigate the noise caused by aircraft. More precisely, we study the noise exposure level of six different airports namely Frankfurt, Heathrow, Zurich, Madrid, Barcelona, and Malaga during 2003 to 2013. In this regard, we present first a summary of noise measures and noise mitigation strategies applied by the different airports as well as give an overview of the current noise regulations which main goal to enforce a more stringent noise level limit to ensure that the latest noise reduction technology is incorporated into the aircraft design. Then we analyze in detail the noise exposure evolution and evaluate how the noise regulations affected each airport. Moreover, we demonstrate that several factors such as the crisis or the accident in 2011 have affected strongly on the aviation industry. The results of this study provide valuable information regarding noise regulation in airports as well as facts that demonstrate how the manufactures and airlines are concerned about noise level reduction.
Reducing noise impact and improving quality of life by addressing annoyance
2020
Aircraft noise is the most significant impact on communities residing near airports. But in addition to acoustical factors, non-acoustical factors also contribute to noise annoyance. In the ANIMA project, relevant indicators influencing the quality of life of residents living near airport are identified. Literature studies, but also focus group meetings and workshops, and online survey for communities near altogether nine different European airports are performed to understand the role of the airport and the implications on the well-being of citizens. Furthermore, it is intended to study what current communication strategies of the airports are and how they influence the impact of aircraft noise on residents? annoyance response and well-being. A detailed literature study as well as a re-analysis of data has been carried out to develop awakenings indicators for nocturnal fly-overs, as noise-induced sleep disturbance has been linked to adverse health effects and is also associated wit...
Noise-related land-use restrictions are included in Brazilian regulations since the beginning of the 1980s. These restrictions are applied in areas subjected to aircraft noise levels higher than compatibility criterion defined by the responsible authorities. However, noise-related conflicts remain common not only in Brazilian airports, and there are reactions from communities located in areas considered compatible by the regulations. Additionally, the current metric for aircraft noise evaluation in Brazil (Ldn - Day-Night Average Sound Level) is not easily understood by the general public, which jeopardizes the communication between airports and the communities affected by the noise. Given this scenario, the objective of this work is to propose a new methodology for aircraft noise evaluation, based on the application of weights on the number of noise events, with the objective of providing a good correlation with perceived annoyance, together with an increased ease of understanding to people without technical knowledge on acoustics. To validate this methodology, a survey was realized at the surrounding areas of the São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport (GRU), in Brazil, with the use of online forms and advertisements published in social networks. The 547 responses obtained were used to evaluate the annoyance level caused by aircraft noise on the communities living on the surroundings of this airport. The results show that the proposed Weighted Number Above (WNA) and Verbal Number-Above (VNA) metrics are similar to the Ldn in terms of correlation with the reported annoyance, and has the additional advantage of the improved ease of understanding. The analysis also show that the current aircraft noise compatibility criteria are associated with annoyance levels higher than the ones foreseen by the applicable requirements, which confirms the need to consider community engagement aspects on the land-use definitions around airports, and not only the subjective aspects of noise acceptability.
The case for a design-led, end-user focused airport noise management process
Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 2021
Designing and implementing noise management actions is complex, with research showing that airports tend to develop such actions in an inconsistent manner, rather than through robust processes based on a rich evidence base, and that aim to deliver targeted outcomes, through evaluable interventions. This article presents some key airport noise management challenges, and proposes that a framework to guide noise managers in the development of management actions may enhance their capacity to respond to noise management challenges. The paper presents the concept of Design Thinking, a popular user-centric and iterative problem-solving approach. We argue that Design Thinking can play a key role in guiding noise managers through a series of propositions that lay the ground for future research to provide airports with the best possible guidance with which to developand implementeffective noise management actions.