ANIMA intervention: Cluj

The rationale behind this intervention was that noise, emissions and air quality are the main environmental concerns in rapidly growing airports and an understanding of their relationship could support the identification of appropriate solutions to balance them. The intervention was initiated by the Cluj Airport and was performed with the support of INCD-T COMOTI and one airline. The study aimed at understanding the challenges of interdependencies between noise and emissions and was performed through the use of airline data

In order to initiate the study, ‘best practice’ examples (e.g. Catania Airport) and a brief bibliographic review was performed. Later, an airline with regular flights in Cluj Airport was selected. One key aspect in the selection procedures to be analysed was the use of Noise Abatement Departure Procedures (NADPs) – NADP1 and NADP2. Through the use of both types of procedures, it was already known that fuel consumption rates differ from one procedure to another. Even so, an understanding related to real noise variation, as well as regarding differences in terms of emissions and air quality were missing.

Therefore, an investigation of this gap was launched to understand the role of interdependencies in an airport context, through the use of airline data. The data analysis aimed to demonstrate if the initial purpose of using NADPs (i.e. reducing noise and emissions) will be confirmed.

Data from the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) about the use of NADPs and input airline data were used (flight data sets from February 2020 and July 2020). The information included runway requirements for using NADPs, flight phase, flight level, latitude, longitude and fuel consumption – for the same aircraft type, engine and maximum take-off weight (MTOW). The data set was reduced to a total of ten NADP procedures.

Through the use of simulation tools, a Geographic Information System map was developed and the population was distributed uniformly (due to unavailable precise data). Noise contours were computed using the L_day indicator, for five NADP1 and five NADP2 procedures. An analysis in terms of number of people exposed to different levels of noise was also performed.

Fuel consumption data was used for the investigation of the quantity of emissions produced from both NADPs. Further analyses were performed to determine the CO (Carbon monoxide) and NO_X (Nitrogen oxides) emission (at the level of residents from Cluj-Napoca city) and dispersion of pollution (at the level of the airport). CO and NO_X exposure of the population to different particle concentrations was additionally derived.

From the noise exposure analysis, it resulted that NADP2 exposed more people to higher levels of noise, while NADP1 exposed more people to lower levels of noise.

The fuel consumption data analysis showed that the quantity of CO₂ emission up to 3,000 ft was higher in the case of NADP1 than in the case of NADP2, validating the initial assumption of the airline, which preferred NADP2 over NADP1 for decreased fuel consumption values.

However, NO_X and CO values were higher during the use of NADP2 in comparison to NADP1. Results from the study related to the exposure of the population to CO and NO_X showed that NADP2 exposes more people to higher particle concentrations than it is the case of NADP1.