Invitation to the X-Noise Symposium on Ultragreen Airport

Date: 17-06-2010 (81 days old)

Category:

Symposium on Ultragreen Airport in the framework of the 17th International Congress on Sound and Vibration (ICSV17), 21-22 July 2010, Cairo, Egypt.

Introduction

The air transport industry plays a critical role supporting City/Regional development and airports are key capacity nodes within the air transport system. Airport growth brings with it significant social and economic benefit and some City / Regions are highly reliant upon their airports.

The social and economic benefits of airport growth are therefore significant.

The environmental impacts associated with that growth are, however, significant also and if these impacts are not managed then they threaten to constrain growth and hence the socio-economic benefits that would flow from it. 

Effective management of the environmental impacts of aviation is key to ensuring growth.

Ongoing growth, tightening environmental regulation, changing public attitude and in particular, climate change will increasingly impact upon airports. This will require that greater attention is paid to environmental issues.

The airport of the future will need to be ‘Ultra-Green’ in terms of its infrastructure and the way in which it is environmental impacts are managed.

The major issues of concern are climate change, aircraft noise disturbance, local air quality, resource (energy and water) use, ecological and habitat disruption and wastes management.

Environmental issues will affect the future design and materials used to construct airport infrastructure, affecting aprons, taxiways, terminals, drainage systems, power generation and much more. An ultra green airport would be designed as a multi-modal transport hub allowing passengers to access aviation without having to use cars. Aircraft, ground vehicles and other equipment used at the airport would have to be designed specifically with their environmental impacts in mind. Finally airport operations, while seeking to achieve the correct balance between safety, customer service, cost and capacity, will have to give a high priority to environmental protection if the long term growth of the airport is to be ensured.

This symposium on Ultragreen Airports will examine this issue in detail and describe the concept of airport environmental capacity. It will explain how different environmental issues can impact upon airport growth and development and how those impacts can be managed and mitigated.

Objectives of the Symposium

The X3-Noise Thematic Network aims to address some of the questions associated with the Ultragreen Airport concept, by organising a symposium on this challenging topic.  The event aims to support and substantiate the ACARE SRA 2 goals and support the sustainable growth of airports by informing their long term strategic development.

The event will address several aspects of this complex subject, by:

• Focussing on the challenges associated with airport environmental
• Identifying possible solutions
• Presenting case-studies from Europe and other regions.

Each topic will be examined in order to clarify:

• the challenge
• technological, operational and infrastructural solutions
• tradeoffs - with other environmental impacts and airport operational considerations.

The event includes input on ‘Perspectives from Africa / Middle East Region’. This is designed to promote a understanding of differences in the environmental priorities faced in Europe and other parts of the World.

More information on the conference topics can be found on our website: 

http://www.icsv17.org/index.php/ICSV17/index/pages/view/xnoise

 

 

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