Aircraft Noise Assessment Using Noise Points: Conception and Verification

The increase in global air traffic volumes has significant economic and ecological impacts. A key factor in this context is the development of the noise situation around airports. However, assessing the development of the noise situation at multiple airports simultaneously and in detail requires comprehensive calculations. Therefore, there is a strong need for a simple method to evaluate how the growth of air traffic affects the noise impact around airports, especially under considerations of different what-if scenarios. This can be achieved by assigning a noise-equivalent value to each aircraft that represents its noise impact. These noise points indicate how many movements of a reference aircraft would be required to produce approximately the same noise impact as one movement of the aircraft under consideration. The concept allows for an easy and quick assessment of aircraft noise by summing such noise points, because, as shown in this study, the noise point sum can directly be related to a change in noise levels and contour area. This article presents a promising method for determining noise points and applies it to aircraft groups from a recently proposed database of the German aircraft noise calculation method AzB. The noise point concept is verified at various airports, demonstrating its effectiveness in representing noise situations and developments. The differences of analyzed contour areas obtained via noise calculations and via the noise point concept remain below 3.6% over a generic 30-year forecast.