A practical tool to reduce the effects of air tour noise

Using aircraft tracking data to estimate the geographic scope of noise impacts from low-level overflights above parks and protected areas

Authors

Davyd H. Betchkal (National Park Service, Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division, Denali National Park)
J. Adam Beeco (National Park Service, Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division)
Sharolyn J. Anderson (National Park Service, Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division)
Brian A. Peterson (Kansas State University)
Damon Joyce (National Park Service, Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division)

Highlights

• An active space is a spatial guide for noise mitigation and subsequent monitoring.
• Syntheses of flight tracking and acoustic data can predict active space scope.
• We found air tours to be clearly audible at distances exceeding 10 km (6 mi).
• Disturbance to wilderness character is possible from air tours within 8 km (5 mi).
• Speech interference is possible from air tours within 1.6 km (1 mi).

Abstract

Sightseeing air tours have proven to be a challenging management issue for many tourist destinations around the world, especially at locations meant to protect natural and cultural resources and wilderness character. Two of the primary challenges with managing air tours are a lack of information about their travel patterns and how such patterns result in a measurable noise impact to listeners. Recent studies have highlighted the usefulness of newer technology for tracking aircraft travel patterns, particularly over national parks. In this synthesis, we pair aircraft tracks with acoustic data using a quantitative observer-based audibility modelling software toolkit. The findings delimit the long-term geographic scope of audibility for specific aircraft noise sources above landscapes of Hawai'i Volcanoes and Denali National Parks, U.S. and identify practical, 3-dimensional offset distances that can be used to reduce the functional effects of air tour noise in terms of sound level.

Citation & Link

Betchkal, D. H., Beeco, J. A., Anderson, S. J., Peterson, B. A., & Joyce, D. (2023). Using aircraft tracking data to estimate the geographic scope of noise impacts from low-level overflights above parks and protected areas. Journal of Environmental Management, 348, 119201.