After elaborating and validating the initial version of the Common Roadmap for Research on Aviation Noise Reduction, an update process was started. This process is updated with the ongoing EU and national projects, which contribute to the roadmap with their latest findings. In addition to this, a specific ANIMA task is contributing to upgrading the roadmaps. This task defines and assesses scenarios that simulate the introduction of new technologies and noise management practices envisaged to be implemented in operational settings for the mid- to long-term (2035 to 2050, respectively) on several selected airports.
These simulations will provide an overview of the effect of the planned research and its potential to lead to the target of achieving 24/7 operations while respecting environmental constraints.
The goal of this scenario’s assessment is to identify changes in the noise impact around airports produced by variations in in-flight procedures, noise reduction technology solutions or by other improvements within the framework of the ICAO Balanced Approach.
To that end, ANIMA provides a toolset that allows simulating such scenarios around airports and modifying the operational state of the specific airport (i.e. the number of operations of each aircraft, track or profile combination, and the operations' time). It can also be combined with the ‘receiver state’ of the areas around the airport (population, distribution and sensitivity to noise of a specific zone, including a dose-response relationship). The tool, therefore, allows checking the real impact of a new operational state (for instance, new tracks, new propulsion and/or aircraft concepts) as well as a new receiver state (changes in land-use planning, curfews, time shift).
The evaluated scenarios are expected to inform the final version roadmap, which will be available by the end of the project, on the potential reduction of noise impact achievable with the relevant topics and subtopics of the roadmap subsets. This may contribute to the prioritisation of the most promising solutions.