Airport Noise and Its Environmental Impacts

 Airport Noise and Its Environmental Impacts

    There are many environmental impacts that are caused by airport operations.  There are water quality issues, noise issues, fuel storage, and air quality just to name a few.  In this blog, I will be discussing the environmental impact of noise that is caused by airport operations.  

    Noise issues are primarily caused by the aircraft in the airport itself or the surrounding area in the air.  One of the main issues with the noise caused by aircraft is the negative effect it can have on people's quality of life and the surrounding property values.  It has been shown to negatively affect the academic performance of children and can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in people living near an airport (Aviation Noise Impacts: State of the Science, 2017).  On top of all that, noise can also impact a person's ability to get adequate sleep at night which can have a negative effect on a person's cognitive performance.  There have been steps taken to reduce noise pollution, but still, more is needed.

    Some of the ways to help mitigate noise environmental impacts would be to create quieter engines.  Even though newer aircraft engines are designed to be quieter, there still is a long way to go.  Also, when it comes to the impacts on children, some schools in the vicinity of airports have installed sound insulation to reduce the amount of noise inside the school.  Doing this has shown that the effect of aircraft noise on children was eliminated (Aviation Noise Impacts: State of the Science, 2017). 

    

References

Aviation Noise Impacts: State of the Science. (2017). PubMed Central (PMC). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5437751/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Environment factors that affect aircraft performance

Image
 Environment factors that affect aircraft performance     Weather is one of the most influential factors that can affect an aircraft's performance.  The temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure, among others, can all have an effect on how an aircraft will fly.  For this blog, I will be focusing on atmospheric pressure and its effects on aircraft performance.     Atmospheric pressure is one of the basic factors in weather changes and helps provide lift to the aircraft.  The atmospheric pressure changes at different elevations and temperatures.  At higher altitudes, the pressure of the air becomes less dense, which has a major effect on the aircraft.  This can cause less power to be produced in the engines since they take in less air.  Also, the loss of thrust, because less power in the engines equals less thrust.  It reduces life, since the air is thinner, it exerts less force on the airfoils.  To help combat the los...
Read more

Ethics

Image
Ethics        Since I am in the Air Force, we have a set of core values that I'm sure most of you are aware of: Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence in All We Do.  Those three core values are what I believe to be the definition of Ethics.  All three of them can be used in your day-to-day life, not just being applied to the military.  Having integrity is one of the most important things to me because it helps build trust in another person.  In the aviation industry, having integrity is vital to ensure safe and reliable aircraft are being flown.  Service before self is essential to aviation as well, and I don't mean putting your work before you all the time, more that when you're performing maintenance or flying an aircraft, that should be your top priority at the time you are doing it. Lastly, excellence in all we do is self-explanatory.  You should always do your best when performing anything you do.  Those three cor...
Read more

Hydraulic Systems

Image
 Hydraulic Systems     The hydraulic system in an aircraft provides control to the aircraft's other systems.  Those systems range from brakes to flight control operations.  It is one of the most important systems on an aircraft, and the loss of hydraulic power could have severe consequences.       As an aircraft maintainer myself, I have seen what can happen if an aircraft loses hydraulic power.  Thankfully there has been no loss of aircraft or personnel due to the safety features that are equipped to the aircraft I have worked (A-10, F-35).  A total loss of hydraulic power is extremely rare in most airliners since there is usually more than one.  However, if it were to happen, there is very little a pilot can do about it.  The A-10 for example has two hydraulic systems and if one were to go out, the other can be used to help control the aircraft.  If both were to go out, then it is able to be flown in manual reversio...
Read more