Aircraft Noise Distribution as a Fairness Dilemma-A Review of Aircraft Noise through the Lens of Social Justice Research

Advancing noise management in aviation: Strategic approaches for preventing noise-induced hearing loss

As urbanization and population growth escalate, the challenge of noise pollution intensifies, particularly within the aviation industry. This review examines current insights into noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) in aviation, highlighting the risks to pilots, cabin crew, aircraft maintenance engineers, and ground staff from continuous exposure to high-level noise. It evaluates existing noise management and hearing conservation strategies, identifying key obstacles and exploring new technological solutions. While progress in developing protective devices and noise control technologies is evident, gaps in their widespread implementation persist. The study underscores the need for an integrated strategy combining regulatory compliance, technological advances, and targeted educational efforts. It advocates for global collaboration and policy development to safeguard the auditory health of aviation workers and proposes a strategic framework to enhance hearing conservation practices within the unique challenges of the aviation sector.

A large-scale validation study of aircraft noise modeling for airport arrivals

In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration's Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) is approved to predict the impacts of aircraft noise and emissions. AEDT's critical role in regulatory compliance and evaluating the environmental impacts of aviation requires asking how accurate are its noise predictions. Previous studies suggest that AEDT's predictions lack desired accuracy. This paper reports on a large-scale study, using 200 000 flight trajectories paired with measured sound levels for arrivals to Runways 28L/28R at San Francisco International Airport, over 12 months. For each flight, two AEDT studies were run, one using the approved mode for regulatory filing and the other using an advanced non-regulatory mode with exact aircraft trajectories. AEDT's per aircraft noise predictions were compared with curated measured sound levels at two locations. On average, AEDT underestimated LAmax by -3.09 dB and SEL by -2.04 dB, combining the results from both AEDT noise-modeling modes. Discrepancies appear to result from limitations in the physical modeling of flight trajectories and noise generation, combined with input data uncertainties (aircraft weight, airspeed, thrust, and lift configuration) and atmospheric conditions.

Being a Fair Neighbor-Towards a Psychometric Inventory to Assess Fairness-Related Perceptions of Airports by Residents-Development and Validation of the Aircraft Noise-Related Fairness Inventory (fAIR-In)

Aircraft noise causes a variety of negative health consequences, and annoyance is a central factor mediating stress-related health risks. Non-acoustic factors play an important role in the experience of annoyance where the aspect of fairness is assumed to be a vital component. This paper describes the development of the Aircraft Noise-related Fairness Inventory (fAIR-In) and examines its factorial validity, construct validity and predictive validity. The development of the questionnaire included expert consultations, statements from airport residents and a large-scale online survey around three German airports (N = 1367). Its items cover distributive, procedural, informational and interpersonal fairness. Via mailshot, almost 100,000 flyers were sent out in more (>55 dB(A) L_den)- and less (≤55 dB(A) L_den)-aircraft-noise-exposed areas around Cologne-Bonn, Dusseldorf and Dortmund Airport. Thirty-two items were carefully selected considering reliability, theoretical importance and factor loading calculated via exploratory factor analysis (EFA), with all facets achieving high internal consistency (α = 0.89 to 0.92). The factorial validity, analyzed via a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), revealed that viewing distributive, procedural, informational and interpersonal fairness as distinct factors produced a better fit to the data than other categorizations with fewer factors. The fAIR-In shows adequate results in terms of construct validity and excellent results in terms of the predictive validity of annoyance by aircraft noise (r = -0.53 to r = -0.68), acceptance of airports and air traffic (r = 0.46 to r = 0.59) and willingness to protest (r = -0.28 to r = -0.46). The fAIR-In provides airport managers with a reliable, valid and easy-to-use tool to design, monitor and evaluate efforts to improve the neighborliness between an airport and its residents.

Impact of Aircraft Delays on Population Noise Exposure in Airport’s Surroundings

The motivation behind this research was to analyse the consequences of aircraft operations’ delays on cumulative noise levels produced upon the neighbouring communities and to estimate the relative change in the number of people annoyed by aircraft noise. Many studies showed that residents’ reactions to abrupt changes in noise exposure were more intense compared to the anticipated ones. Aircraft delays may cause such abrupt changes in noise exposure by increasing the traffic in some periods compared to the scheduled traffic. The methodology applied includes noise contour development for two different scenarios for intervals where aircraft delays occur. Only delays connected with the Total Airport Management (TAM) were analysed, since such delays can be influenced by airports. The first scenario considered the influence of aircraft operations on population noise exposure without TAM delays, whereas the second one included all delayed flights (actual traffic). The proposed method was tested through case studies of three southeast European airports. The results showed that the highest potential of decrease in the number of people annoyed by the noise was recorded at Niš Airport (59%), followed by Zadar Airport (49%) and Sarajevo Airport (25%). Similar results were obtained in the context of highly annoyed people.