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As mentioned in the “Who is who” section of the Noise Platform, numerous stakeholders are involved in different roles associated with noise reduction interventions. This can often confuse people and contribute to annoyance where individuals are unclear about how to access information, who to ask for a solution to a problem or how can they get involved in the decision-making process?

There are too many options – airports, environmental authorities, air traffic controllers, aviation authorities, etc. The feeling of helplessness frequently takes hold if people feel their questions or complaints are being passed from one authority to another without any solution.   

Possible solutions

The research carried out by ANIMA reveals that the coordination between all involved stakeholders is essential. Pre-established forums, commissions or working groups that coordinate the demands of the public and provide them with a response are highly effective and increase the public’s trust, reduce authorities’ response time and improve the efficacy of the results.

One possible approach is to coordinate citizens demands through one internal centralised body. ANIMA has found some cases in which the airports have become the sole recipients of all kinds of public questions. In this instance, the airport coordinates and responds to community concerns, ideally offering up solutions to identified problems. In other cases, an aviation authority coordinates the response to questions and seeks solutions through demanding answers from the stakeholders involved.

A second approach is to trust the coordination role to the pre-established forums, commissions or working groups.

EUROCONTROL’s Collaborative Environmental Management (CEM) is a working arrangement that brings together the core operational stakeholders at airports. The objective is to identify how environmental management interventions can reduce the environmental impacts of operations and to agree on a coordinated response that minimises the negative impact on the environment whilst maximising the airport’s current and future performance. Many airports in Europe have adopted CEM working arrangements.

Below, you can find a recording of the webinar “How Airports, Regions and Airlines use Collaborative Environmental Management?”.

In recognition of the importance of a coordinated approach that is sensitive to the needs of citizens, in 2019, ANIMA Project has organised an event in Slovenia “Success strategies for noise mitigation in airport areas: Communication and two-way dialogue with communities”.

This showed that prevention and proactivity are key points for noise management. The level of awareness often differs among stakeholders, hence the importance of working together towards a common noise policy which benefits all parties. With the support of the ANIMA Project initiative, a much-needed dialogue around Ljubljana Airport has started – a Dialogue Forum should consider the problems in the context of a broader picture including interdependencies, land-use planning and quality of life. To read about ANIMA intervention in Ljubljana, click here.