Environmental Engineering Reference
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the result that noise impacts are already the major environmental constraint upon
the potential for growth at many larger airports in all regions.
The level of annoyance or opposition caused within neighbouring communities
and its potential to act as a constraint upon airport growth will, however, vary signif-
icantly with the social and economic needs of those communities. Critically, the res-
idents of communities surrounding airports who serve less affluent populations are
likely to be more tolerant of aircraft noise or feel unable to express opposition. Oppo-
sition would be further reduced or tolerance increased if local residents benefited (eg
by employment) from the continued growth of those airports.
The experience of the states within the European Union provides an example of
how future noise policy could emerge in other parts of the world. Europeans are rel-
atively noise sensitive and the issue of aircraft noise is high on the political agenda of
every nation state within the EU. The EC has responded to this through adopting a
policy objective that seeks, in the medium to longer term, to reduce the number of peo-
ple exposed to noise. Growth in air traffic is strong, while many European airports
are already noise constrained. Others, however, face little or no community opposi-
tion. This provides the background against which Europe has to address the issue of
aircraft noise, particularly in response to the regulatory framework established by
ICAO in 2001, a framework considered inadequate by many in Europe.
The longer-term growth of the air transport industry will depend, to a very sig-
nificant degree, upon a continuing and credible reduction in aircraft noise at source
through improved airframe and engine technology. The ability of airports to meet
future growth in passenger and cargo demand will be constrained if growth contin-
ues to outstrip technological and operational improvements, with a consequential
increase in noise levels around airports. Growing affluence and democracy will fur-
ther drive an increase in the level of nuisance and opposition within local communi-
ties. This will affect all airports, even those without local noise problems, if they are
unable to maintain or expand air services to noise-sensitive airports due to these
constraints. Such constraints could have significant implications in terms of devel-
opment if, for example, the air route network serving a particular airport cannot be
extended to bring in new services to economically important destinations.
Clearly, reducing noise exposure can only be part of the solution to reducing
opposition to airport growth. In the future, it is likely that shared liability for dam-
age caused by aircraft noise, reviewing the methodologies for determining levels of
compensation, and more funding for noise mitigation projects need to be addressed
if the growing airport noise-pollution problem is to be satisfactorily mediated. Fur-
thermore, the dialogue established between airports and their surrounding commu-
nities will be critical in determining the way in which airports identify and address
issues of local concern. This, in turn, will affect the ability of airports to grow and
meet air traffic demand where and when it arises.
R EFERENCES
Berglund, B and Lindvall, T (eds) (1995) 'Community Noise', Archive of the Centre for Sen-
sory Research - Stockholm , vol 2(1), pp86-104
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