Environmental Impacts of Airports

Hello everybody, one common overlooked environmental impact that airports give off are known as the third party risk. According to Visser and Wijnen, the third party risk is where risk is calculated based on the aircraft crashing in populated areas within the range of the airport (Visser & Wijnen, 2008). As metropolitan locations grow in popularity, they begin to reach near airports. This has an adverse effect for airports as their third party risks increases. The likelihood of an aircraft crashing is low, however 70% of crashes do occur close to airports, therefore they want to minimize this risk of causing catastrophic damage and fatalities on the ground (Visser & Wijnen, 2008). In order for this to occur the airport must be far from densely populated areas. Unfortunately in 2005, a Mandala Air Lines failed to lift off due to incorrect configurations and consequently ran into the ground striking a building and busy road, killing 49 civilians (Ranter, 2005). I believe to further mitigate populated areas, airports should be strategically placed so that no densely populated areas are within the vicinity of take off and landing flight paths. This means that airport builders should consider the growing capacity of cities and suburbans. Additionally, laws can be put in place to prohibit residential construction within the vicinity of airports. As you can see from the image below, aircraft fatal accidents usually occur during take off and landing.


Using the information above, the graphic below shows the green line as a combination of this factor and the path of the aircraft after take off or during landing. Residential buildings should be minimized in these highlighted regions to minimize third party risk.
References

Visser, H., & Wijnen, R. (2008). Management of the environmental impact at airport operations. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu

Ranter, H. (2005, September 05). ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 737-230 PK-RIM Medan-Polonia Airport (MES). Retrieved from https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20050905-0