Civil Airports Research Articles

Evidence-based recommendation of threshold values for protection against adverse health effects of aircraft noise

For communities around airports, the German Aircraft Noise Protection Act (FluLaermG) defines two noise protection zones (NPZ) for the daytime (6am - 10pm) and one for the night-time (10pm - 6am). Threshold values of aircraft noise exposure demarcate these zones. For residential properties within the NPZ, the FluLaermG regulates building restrictions and the eligibility for reimbursement of noise insulation, which, regarding the daytime, are stricter for NPZ day 1 than for NPZ day 2. On behalf of the Aircraft Noise Commission, Frankfurt, an expert opinion was prepared to evaluate the threshold values for airport regions in the FluLaermG from the perspective of noise effect research. For this, a threshold value system (TVS) for demarcation of the protection zones was developed based on results of a systematic literature review on health effects of aircraft noise. This contribution provides an overview of key results of the review underlying the TVS and outlines the rationale for the system. The proposed compelling threshold values for avoiding unacceptable health effects of aircraft noise for civil airport regions are 56 dB LAeq,day (NPZ day 1), 51 dB LAeq,day (NPZ day 2), and 44 dB LAeq,night (NPZ night).

Airside Optimization Framework Covering Multiple Operations in Civil Airport Systems with a Variety of Aircraft: A Simulation-Based Digital Twin

Airside Optimization Framework Covering Multiple Operations in Civil Airport Systems with a Variety of Aircraft: A Simulation-Based Digital Twin

Research on the construction of low-current Airfield Groud Lighting system for civil airports in China

Abstract The 2.8A to 6.6A power supply method is widely used in Airfield Groud Lighting (AGL) system at present. This power supply method is formulated based on the luminous characteristics of halogen lamps. Although The LED light fixtures significantly reduce the energy consumption of the lamps, the energy-saving effect for the entire AGL system is not ideal, mainly due to the high current of the power supply circuit and the high loss of the circuit itself. Through the classification of low-current AGL system, this article proposes a low-current implementation method suitable for China’s civil aviation. For low-current AGL system, which cannot meet existing civil aviation industry standards and specifications in China’s civil airports, through analyzing the differences between low-current AGL system and existing 6.6A power supply systems in design requirements, implementation and construction, operation and maintenance, as well as existing technical specifications, Propose low Specific requirements for the application of current-assisted AGL system, and propose energy-saving retrofit technical solutions based on the characteristics of AGL projects, laying the foundation for the application of low-current AGL system in Chinese civil airports.

Study on the resilience recovery of civil airport infrastructure under weather extremes

Study on the resilience recovery of civil airport infrastructure under weather extremes

Evaluation of mitigation translocation as a management tool to reduce conflicts between humans and American kestrels

AbstractRaptor‐aircraft collisions (bird strikes) pose a serious safety risk to civil aircraft. Even smaller raptors, such as American kestrels (Falco sparverius), can be problematic within airport environments. Given widespread declines in kestrel populations, public interest, logistical and financial constraints, and other factors, managing kestrels at airports presents some unique challenges. I conducted a study to determine which biological (e.g., age and sex of the bird) and logistical factors (e.g., month and translocation distance) might influence the return of American kestrels live‐captured and translocated from 42 civil airports and military airbases within the contiguous USA during 2016–2021. American kestrels were live‐captured, banded, and translocated various distances from the airfields which were then monitored for returning kestrels. I developed a set of candidate generalized linear mixed models (binomial distribution) involving all possible subsets of 4 factors (age, sex, month, and distance translocated) as well as interactions, and used the location where a kestrel was live‐captured (i.e., airport) as a random factor in all mixed models. The return rate of American kestrels was very low (<4% of the individuals that were translocated). I found no evidence that the biological and logistical factors examined influenced return rates or the number of days it took returning birds to be resighted/recaptured. Management programs that use release sites 15 km from airfields would increase program efficacy and decrease implementation costs. There is no scientific information available regarding the efficacy of American kestrel management programs for reducing kestrel presence on airfields thus, these results provide a basis for informing such management decisions.

Sources of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in an arid, urban, wastewater-dominated watershed

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) enter surface waters from various sources such as wastewater treatment plants, fire-fighting sites, and PFAS-producing and PFAS-using industries. The Las Vegas Wash in Southern Nevada of the United States (U.S.) conveys wastewater effluent from the Las Vegas metropolitan area to Lake Mead, a drinking water source for millions of people in the U.S. Southwest. PFAS have previously been detected in the Las Vegas Wash, but PFAS sources were not identified. In this study, upstream wash tributaries, wastewater treatment effluents, and shallow groundwater wells were sampled in multiple campaigns during dry-weather conditions to investigate possible PFAS sources. Out of 19 PFAS, two short-chain PFAS—perfluoropentanoic acid (48 % of the total molar concentration) and perfluorohexanoic acid (32 %)—comprised the majority of PFAS loading measured in the Las Vegas Wash, followed by perfluorooctanoic acid (9 %). On a mass loading basis, the majority of total measured PFAS (approximately 90 %) and at least 48 % of each specific PFAS in the Las Vegas Wash likely entered via municipal wastewater effluents, of which the main source was likely residential wastewater. One of the drainage areas with a major civilian airport was identified as a potential source of relatively enriched perfluorosulfonic acids to a small wash tributary and shallow groundwater samples. Nonetheless, that tributary contributed at most 15 % of any specific PFAS to the mainstem of the Las Vegas Wash. Total PFAS concentrations were relatively low for the small tributary associated with an urban smaller airport and the lack of flow in the tributary channel immediately downgradient of an Air Force base indicates the smaller airport and base were unlikely significant PFAS sources to the Las Vegas Wash. Overall, this study demonstrated effective PFAS source investigation methodology and the importance of wastewater effluent as a PFAS environmental pathway.

First study using a fixed-wing drone for systematic measurements of aerosol vertical distribution close to a civil airport

A profound knowledge of pollutant emissions and transport processes is essential to better assess the impact on local air quality, which ultimately affects human health. This is of special importance in the proximity of airports, as flight activities are a major source of ultrafine aerosol particles (UFP) that are associated with adverse health effects. A quantification of the aerosol population in the horizontal and in particular in the vertical distribution has not been sufficiently characterized so far, but is of crucial relevance, as the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is strongly interacting with aerosols. For this purpose, the fixed-wing research drone called ALADINA (Application of Light-weight Aircraft for Detecting in-situ Aerosol) was operated at a distance of approximately 4 km downwind of the German airport Berlin Brandenburg (BER) on October 11–19, 2021. During the investigation period, 140 vertical profiles of different meteorological parameters and aerosol particle sizes were obtained on six measurement days between the surface and up to a maximum altitude of 750 m above ground level (a.g.l.). The investigations indicate several features: The stability of the ABL is a key characteristic for the vertical distribution of aerosol population with highest concentrations close to ground. Inversion layers further enhance horizontal transport so that airport pollutants can be moved to a further distance away. The airborne observations of total particle number concentration (TNC) coincide with ground-based data from fix-point sites. They show a high variability depending on the distance to the plume as well as upwind position and highest concentrations of TNC related to rush hours of airport operations.

Characteristics of number concentration, size distribution and components of particulate matter emitted from a typical large civil airport

Civil airports are recognized as significant contributors to fine particulate matter, especially ultra-fine particulate matter (UFP). The pollutants from airport activities have a notable adverse impact on global climate, urban air quality, and public health. However, there is a lack of practical observational studies on the characterization of integrated pollutant emissions from large civil airports. This study aims to focus on the combined emission characteristics of particulate number concentration (PNC), size distribution, and components at a large civil airport, especially UFP. The findings reveal that airport activities significantly contribute to elevated PNC levels during aircraft activity in downwind conditions (four times higher than background levels) and upwind conditions (7.5 times higher). UFP dominates the PNC around the airport. The particle size distribution shows two peaks occurring around 10-30 nm and 60-80 nm. Notably, particles within the ranges of 17-29 nm and 57-101 nm account for 65.9 % and 12.0 % of the total PNC respectively. Aircraft landing has the greatest impact on particles sized between 6 and 17 nm while takeoff affects particles sized between 29 and 57 nm resulting in a respective increase in PNC by factors of approximately 3.27 and 35.4-fold increase compared to background levels. Different aircraft types exhibit varying effects on PNC with A320 and A321 showing more pronounced effects during takeoff and landing.The presence of airports leads to roughly five-fold rise in elemental component concentrations with Si being highest followed by OC, Ca, Al, Fe, Ca2+, EC, and Mg2+. The OC/EC ratio under high aircraft activity in downwind conditions falls within range of approximately 2.5–3.5. These characteristic components and ratio can be considered as identifying species for civil airports. PMF model show about 75 % of the particulate emissions at the airport boundary were related to airport activities.

Cultural heritage and urban morphology: land use transformation in ‘Kumbh Mela’ of Prayagraj, India

A Hindu pilgrimage site where millions of people gather to seek solutions to problems related to everyday life, the “Kumbh Mela” is recognised as one of India’s intangible cultural heritages. The site of the observance rotates between four cities, Haridwar, Ujjain, Nashik and Prayagraj. The infrastructure and services in the city that is hosting such a gathering undergo numerous changes as a result of the sizeable gathering. The goal of the study is to monitor the changes in Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) in the city of Prayagraj before and after the “Kumbh Mela” and to evaluate the effect on infrastructure changes in the citry. Analyzing the changes that such pilgrimages and events bring about in cities are fascinating. In 2019, the city of Prayagraj hosted the “Kumbh”, hence, Pre-Kumbh (2016), Kumbh (2019), and Post-Kumbh (2022) phases were taken under consideration for LULC change assessment. Supervised classification was conducted using Maximum Likelihood Classifier to prepare LULC maps. It was observed that urbanisation has significantly increased at the expense of vegetation, fallow land, and agricultural land. The success of the local agroforestry policy and plantation drive is demonstrated by the interesting increase in vegetation that has been observed. The construction of a civil airport, the widening of existing roads, the installation of new railroad tracks, and the adornment of roundabouts on existing roads are the major infrastructure changes. The findings offer fresh insights of increasing urban infrastructure from a cultural perspective. The findings will aid in better planning and policy development for the resilient and sustainable infrastructure, as well as in the development of a long-term strategy for the temporary habitation in the “Kumbh” area of such cities.

DESIGNING OF NOISE POLLUTION MEASURES FOR A MILITARY AIRFIELD

This article discusses the possibilities of reducing noise pollution in the vicinity of a selected airport, with an emphasis on practical measures. The proposed procedures, which are routinely employed at commercial airports, would be ineffective or financially unsustainable under the circumstances of the military airports. The objective at military airports is not to maximise capacity, as at civil airports, where the desire to increase capacity is primarily related to profit. The primary objective for military airports is to perform defined tasks, which may include pilot training, search and rescue exercises and combat training. The main measures proposed to reduce noise pollution in the vicinity of the villages are changes in departure and arrival routes, the splitting of night operations into two parts and the introduction of a new article in the AIP and Airport Regulations prohibiting air operations over and in close proximity to the villages nearby. Finally, it is stressed that a significant reduction in noise will only be possible with the support of changes in legislation or above-standard financial investment by the airport operator.

INTERCONNECTION SCHEME FOR A MULTIPROTOCOL HETEROGENEOUS WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM IN A CIVIL AIRPORT

In the movement area of an airport, the wireless communication system is built to satisfy the communication requirements of mobile stations (MSs), which include aircraft, vehicles, staff, passengers, and sensors. However, the actual airport wireless communication system is a heterogeneous wireless network with multiple individual wireless communication systems. In this paper, we design a multiprotocol base station (MPBS) to realize the access and interconnection of the MSs with different protocols. In addition, a direct forwarding scheme of MPBS is proposed to improve the performance of transmissions from one MS to another. Third, a priority order transmission scheme, which can reduce the end-to-end delay of important data, is proposed for direct forwarding MPBS. Simulation results show that the proposed direct forwarding MPBS scheme can improve the transmission performance of interactive data and reduce the load of the core network.

Research on the Design Strategy of Civil Airport Ferry Vehicles

Research on the Design Strategy of Civil Airport Ferry Vehicles

Comparative Analysis and Construction of Evaluation Indexes of Civil Aviation Service Quality

Scientific and effective evaluation of civil aviation service quality is of great significance to improve customer satisfaction and the main competitiveness of civil aviation enterprises. In combination with the core ideas of the service quality model, this paper compares and analyzes the service quality evaluation process of airports and airlines from the two dimensions of service contents and evaluation indexes on the basis of literature arrangement and summary. Based on the SERVQUAL model and the "China Civil Airport Service Quality Evaluation Index System", the related contents of the system is appropriately revised combined with the characteristics of airport and airline services. To this end, the service quality evaluation indexes of airports and airlines are respectively built. The research shows that there are indeed some differences in five dimensions of evaluation indexes between airports focusing on ground services and airlines responsible for in-flight services. Only when scientific and reasonable evaluation index system for the quality of civil aviation transportation services is established for evaluation in line with the characteristics of civil aviation transportation services in the two scenarios, can the overall service level of passenger transportation in civil aviation industry be upgraded to achieve the high-quality development of civil aviation transportation industry in China.

Aviation Collision Risk Warning for Non-Tower Airport Based on Trajectory Prediction

With the development of the civil aviation industry, the throughput of airports continues to increase, including non-tower airports (small airports without the ability to actively communicate with aircraft). These non-tower civil airports can handle small aircraft such as personal aircraft well and lay a solid foundation for future automated aircraft. However, there is a high collision risk in taking off or landing because the probability of avoiding risks highly relies on the pilot’s flight proficiency and experience. To address this problem, we studied the collision risk of aircraft in non-tower airports and proposed a collision risk warning method based on trajectory prediction. The proposed method obtains the probability of future collisions by learning the flight patterns of all aircraft in non-tower airports, the impact of environmental wind speed on pilot behavior, and the interaction patterns between aircraft. At the same time, we conducted in-depth optimization of the probability integration calculation process under a conditional threshold to reduce the time complexity greatly. The simulation experiment results on non-tower airports show that the designed method for collision risk warning can effectively address the aircraft collision prediction problem in non-tower airports, and outperform other benchmark learning methods. It has significant guiding implications for improving airport intelligence and aircraft automation in the future.

HEALTH RISK AS A CRITERION TO ESTIMATE POPULATION SAFETY IN AN AIRPORT ZONE

The paper considers and tests methodological approaches to assessing public health risks when establishing and using the sanitary (seventh) subzone in an airport zone. Testing was performed at a large civilian airport in Russia. It involved outlining noise contours in accordance with the ICAO methodology. The aviation noise contours were verified with the results produced by instrumental measurements. Acoustic exposure was calculated through assessing averaged daily equivalent noise level (LDN) that was equal to 65 dBA. Health risk assessment showed that long-term exposure primarily affected the cardiovascular system: moderate risks would occur by 23 years; high, by 55 years; and very high, by 63 years. Identified health disorders may become apparent through elevated blood pressure, heart diseases, myocardial infarctions and others.
 Background. It is quite common to locate certain objects within an AZ that are subject to sanitary-epidemiological standardization. Use of any AZ for location of such objects should be well grounded and this is a significant issue occurring when the sanitary (seventh) subzone is established. In particular, this concerns equivalent outdoor noise levels and equivalent and maximum permissible indoor noise levels.
 Purpose. Our research goal was to test the suggested approach to health risk assessment within the boundaries of an aircraft zone.
 Materials and methods. Our research object was a large civil aviation airport located in the temperate zone with an average daily number of landings and takeoffs being about 200. At the exposure assessment stage, we calculated aircraft noise contours by using a certified software package that was based on «Recommended Method for Computing Noise Contours Around Airports» (ICAO Doc 9911-2018). We took an equivalent averaged noise level (LAday, dBА) as an indicator applied to estimate population exposure to a harmful factor.
 We performed continuous AN measurements on a territory that was planned for development. This AN occurred due to AC takeoffs and landings with more than 600 AC flights detected during the measurement period. This determined effects produced by AN on the examined territory. Assessment of “exposure – response” and “exposure – effect” relationships involved using recurrent risk growth equations built on conventional pair mathematical models. This risk was measured within a range from 0 to 1 and scale was considered when giving its estimates.
 Results. This value was calculated based on maximum noise levels established during a single aircraft flight when it took off or landed along a route that was the most significant for determining exposure to aircraft noise. We also calculated equivalent noise levels at day and at night that corresponded to flight intensities typical for normal airport operations (2019). These levels were LAeq.day = 66,0 dBA (“takeoff”), LAeq.night = 52,0 dBA (“landing”).
 Health risk assessment indicated that long-term (chronic) exposure to average daily noise LАd = 65 dBA primarily produced effects on the cardiovascular system. This created moderate risks by the age of 23 years; high risks, 55 years; and extremely high risks, by 63 years.
 We established that living for more than 15 years in an airport zone with identified noise levels could result in negative health outcomes.
 Conclusion. Overall, we have confirmed that health risk assessment should be considered an important instrument for substantiating boundaries of a zone influenced by an airport. Results produced by such assessment are a key criterion in determining how to use a territory near an airport in future as regards locating capital objects there including residential areas and their exploitation.

Performance evaluation of non-oil permeable creep rubber waterproof material for airport pavement joints

A frequent condition of cement concrete pavement at civil airports is slab cavity caused by surface water infiltration, which is a significant safety risk in the regular operation of airports. Mitigation methods to lessen surface water penetration is strongly required. This study examines the tensile and adhesive properties of custom-designed non-oil permeable creep rubber waterproofing (NCRW) material. Direct tensile tests were used to assess the tensile characteristics of NCRW material aged in various modes. Pull-off-healing tests were used to assess the adhesive and self-healing abilities of NCRW material treated with various aging modes to various slabs under various test situations. Fluorescence tests and infrared spectroscopy were also used to explore the aging mechanism of NCRW material. The results showed that NCRW material can offer good self-healing and anti-aging capabilities, as well as great tensile and adhesive properties, so it can meet the needs of airport pavement use. As a result, NCRW material is advised to be used in the airport pavement joints.

Procedures for the planning and implementation of transport operations of Armed Forces and the safety of transport of dangerous goods by air

The aim of the article is to describe practical aspects of the issue related to the transportation of hazardous materials by air and to verify the problem in the form of the following question: Do the current legal conditions and applicable procedures ensure the safe movement of hazardous materials by aircraft? The first part of the article analyzes the legal regulations concerning the transportation of dangerous goods within the country and their impact on transport safety, and also draws attention to the compatibility of normative documents with regard to legislative acts operating internationally, in particular, those in force in the structures of the European Union and the NATO North Atlantic Treaty. Due to the fact that the transportation of hazardous materials carries a high risk, any irregularities arising in the process of transportation preparation may affect the safety of the crew, aircraft and property being moved. Attention was also focused on the proper preparation of hazardous materials for movement, based on the legal regulations cited in the first part of the article. Next, the most important factors affecting transport safety during practical preparation of cargo for air transportation were characterized. In order to fully illustrate the discussed issue and indicate its multifaceted nature, in the last part, an exemplary calculation of the movement of equipment and materials containing dangerous substances from the military airport in Wrocław to the civilian airport in Abidjan (Ivory Coast - Africa) was made. The article is concluded with a summary that highlights the most important aspects related to the transportation of hazardous materials affecting the safety of both people and transported materials.

Optimising the flight turnaround schedules: An improved sliding time windows approach based on MILP and CP models

This paper addresses the scheduling of turnaround operations for flights in civil airports. A series of complex issues, including the heterogeneity of flights and operators, resource constraints on turnaround operations, temporal restrictions and alternative service patterns of turnaround operations, multi-functional operators, multi-trip services and multi-to-one services, are jointedly considered. We propose two formulations for the problem: A mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model, and a constraint programming (CP) model. For comparison purpose, we also present simplified versions of the models in which the multi-to-one services are prohibited. The uncertainty are incorporated by modifying the models based on robust optimisation principles. The numerical experiments are conducted using instances generated based on real flight data at Beijing Capital International Airport. It is shown that under current computer configurations, small-scale instances can be solved to the optimum by CPLEX within an acceptable period of time using the MILP model, while moderate-scale instances can be tackled using the CP formulation. To cope with large-scale instances, an improved sliding time window method is developed, and evaluated with different parameter combinations, showing that practical turnaround schedule would best be updated two to three times per hour. Besides, after a case study in both static and stochastic scenarios, we illustrate that multi-to-one services should be specifically considered and highlighted, for their existence could significantly improve the operator utilisation rate and reduce flight delay, especially when the uncertainties are taken into account.

Research on a Method of Locating Civil Aviation Radio Interference Sources Based on Time Difference of Arrival and Frequency Difference of Arrival for Four Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

Monitoring and analyzing radio interference sources play a crucial role in ensuring the safe operation of civil aviation navigation, communication, airport management, and air traffic control. Traditional ground monitoring methods are slow and inadequate for tracking aerial and mobile interference sources effectively. Although flight methods such as helicopters and airships can effectively monitor aerial interference, the flight approval process is time-consuming and expensive. This paper investigates a novel approach to locating civil aviation radio interference sources using four unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to address this issue. It establishes a model for aerial positioning of radio interference sources with the four UAVs and proposes a method for time synchronization and data communication among them. The paper conducts simulations of the four-UAV time-frequency difference positioning method, analyzing the geometric accuracy dilution with different deployment configurations of the UAVs, positioning biases, and root mean square errors (RMSEs) under varying interference source movement speeds. The simulation results provide crucial data to support subsequent experiments.

Projection of the Co-Reduced Emissions of CO2 and Air Pollutants from Civil Aviation in China

Civil aviation transport is a key area of fossil energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission, and it is also an important source of air pollutants; the emissions of these have caused severe environmental problems. In this paper, we estimated the emissions in 235 domestic civil airports, and predicted the future trends of CO2 and air pollutant emissions from civil aviation in China until 2050 under three scenarios. The co-reduced emissions of each measure were evaluated by using the co-control effects coordinate system. The results show that in 2018, the emissions of CO2, NOx, SO2, CO, PM and HC were 117.23 × 106 tons, 90.47 × 104 tons, 14.37 × 104 tons, 9 × 104 tons, 1.29 × 104 tons and 0.66 × 104 tons, respectively. CO2, NOx, SO2 and PM emissions were mainly concentrated in cruise mode, accounting for 87–93% of the total emissions; HC and CO emissions were more frequently from the LTO. Under the baseline scenario, the growth rate of air pollutant emissions will account for a greater share, from 84% in 2030 to 464% in 2050, whereas the general scenario reduces emissions by 15% and 71%, respectively, and a higher reduction of 26% and 93% is seen in the stringent scenario. Improving aviation fuels is the most significant co-reduction measure, which can reduce CO2 by 89% and 68% in 2030 and 2050, and reduce air pollutants by 86–89% and 62–65%, respectively.