Impact of Environmental Concerns on the Operations of Aircraft and Aircraft Maintenance Industry - Essay Example

?Topic: The impact of increasing environmental concerns on the operations of aircraft and the aircraft maintenance industry. Introduction Aviation and environment are related in many ways from community noise impacts to air quality impacts leading to climate impacts. Aviation is a crucial segment of an economy; therefore, the environmental impacts resulting from air transportation need to be attended to for the overall economic welfare and growth. Aviation forms although an insignificant part in reducing environmental pollution yet concern for it is increasing day-by-day as emissions from pollution caused through aviation functions and operations of aircraft and the aircraft maintenance industry are increasing. Noise pollution affects the people the most, the major side affect of the problem among a number of other aircraft operations and maintenance problems, compelling governments to reconsider the cost of mobility, economic growth and safety of their people. Airport expansion plans have suffered a set back because of increasing environmental impact on air quality, water quality and community noise (Waitz et al., 2004). Discussion Airport operations that affect environment include a number of functions such as the operation of aircraft, maintenance of airport and passenger vehicles and airport ground service equipment (GSE), cleaning and maintenance function, deicing and anti-icing of aircraft and airfields, fuelling and fuel storage of aircraft and other ground transport besides airport facility maintenance functions and airport construction (Luther, 2007). Airport authorities must consent to enforce environmental mitigation initiatives before asking permission for expansion of the airport from the local and state bodies. Community concern has shelved many expansion projects because of issues related to environment. Aviation related environment regulations have been in force from many years but these regulatory compliance issues have become very touchy to be implemented because of ever-increasing air travel. With the addition of new compliance needs airport operations have got transformed with huge investment needed and change in operation processes. Certain crucial issues have emerged due to noise pollution, changes in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations concerning aircraft and airfield deicing operations, changes to EPA regulations on oil spill preventive measures and state and local agency directives to inspect and manage air pollution, particularly harmful air pollutants (Luther, 2007). According to the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB, 2000), the aviation industry needs to look crucial current and future environmental issues such as: takeoff and approach noise causing various technology related issues for subsonic and supersonic aircraft flyover noise emerging from moderate speed and height in noiseless areas sonic booms and hyper booms caused by thermo-spherical refraction and reduced noise volume remains of sonic booms taxi and engine run-up noise fuel venting and fuel dumping emission of CO, hydrocarbons, and NOx in the airport area (below 3,000 feet) formation of vapour trail emissions of CO2 emissions in the upper troposphere and stratosphere from both subsonic and supersonic aircraft of water vapour, NOx, sulphur particles and carbon particles possibility for greenhouse effects and reduction in stratospheric ozone International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO, 2011) has defined the issue related to environmental concerns stating that emissions of aircraft engines are like any other emissions caused by fossil fuel burning but the difference between both types of emissions is that aircraft emissions are extra-ordinary as a good chunk is released at a height. Crucial environment concerns get raised for emissions’ worldwide impact, affecting the local air quality on the surface. As per the Special Report on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere published in 1999, the gases and particles released by the aircraft change the atmospheric density of greenhouse gases, start making condensation lines and may stimulate cirrus cloudiness, all of which add to climate change. The presence of radioactive material, which does not include the cirrus clouds impact, would increase in future. There exists lack of scientific surety on the impact of radioactive material and cirrus clouding on climate and ozone (ICAO, 2011). The new outcomes related to aviation emissions in IPCC AR4 have created the desired effect of reducing the effect of contrails; aircrafts in 2005 were emitting just near to 3.0% of the total of the anthropogenic radioactive by all human activities. Further, the total CO2 aviation emissions are nearly 2 % of the Global Greenhouse Emissions. The contribution of aviation in CO2 emissions is increasing by 3-4% every year. Medium level mitigation efforts on CO2 emissions can be achieved through better fuel efficiency but it won’t be a satisfactory improvement effort. Good thing is the policy change in the ICAO on addressing the environment impact of aircraft engine emissions in stead of only covering ground level affects it has included the overall global impact of aircraft engine emissions. Incidentally, the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has laid stress on finding technical solutions to the problem (ICAO, 2011). The scope of policy making needs to be enlarged as referred in the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). All member countries are bound as per the protocol directives to bring down the collective emissions of six greenhouse gases, the one most related to aviation being CO2. Although global aviation emissions are not aimed at by the Kyoto protocol but responsibility of cutting down the emissions level from aviation bunker fuels lies to the Annex Parties through ICAO. Incidentally, ICAO has also dwelt on the need of finding technical solutions while taking at the same time market-based assessments (ICAO, 2011). According to the survey report (GAO Report, 2000) on the 50 busiest commercial service airports, it has become increasingly difficult to manage environment concerns with the airport operations. Airports are already over-burdened. Survey revealed that noise issues are most perturbing concern for the airport officials. Adjacent land uses linked to noise issue when schools and homes are in the vicinity creates the problem of incompatibility. Another concern expressed was on water quality with deicing runoff. Airport officials were most concerned on the noise level of jet engines with hushkits, which were made to control noise level but are not effective enough to reduce it. A discussion in detail on the link between aviation and the environment will include problems of community noise, local air quality and climate change. Water quality issue is also one of the crucial issues obstructing airport expansion plans. Noise Noise level has considerably reduced over the past years. It is measured in terms of people living in the vicinity above 65dB Day-Night Noise level (DNL), which is the weighted standard for the noise impact of a number of flights over a defined time period. The FAA Integrated Noise Model (INM) is the major tool used throughout the world for measuring the noise of aircraft around airports. It is the recognised limit for getting government grant on mitigating noise. Technological progress is the key to reducing noise level by using high bypass ratio engines, reducing noise and saving fuel [NRC 2002]. New certification parameters and compulsory phasing out the 55% of outdated and noisy fleet had incurred nearly $5B [GAO 2001] (Waitz et al., 2004). Future scenario is going to become deteriorating with the increased air travel outreaching technological and operational progress [NRC 2002]. Europe and Asia would be experiencing higher noise levels in future. New fields of concern are appearing like audibility of aircraft noise in areas of national parks and low frequency noise impacts near the airports. Discussion is going on to introduce supersonic jets with sonic boom signatures for flying over residential areas. The problem of increased noise level has further worsened with the local authorities near the airport areas have not adhered to government recommended land use designs to reduce noise impacts [GAO 2001]. Even when airports are shifted to lonely areas, problem does not subdue because local authorities allow land use near them (Waitz et al., 2004). Aircraft noise has emerged the only most criticised issue against the building and expansion of airports. One solution to the problem seems to be huge investment in technology to reach a technology readiness level (TRL) of 6 to be implemented by the aviation industry. Airports are also investing money in purchasing nearby land to minimise future concerns. A balanced approach can help in leveraging near-term opportunities with operational processes, minimising the source noise in the long run and implementing such policies that support right land use (Waitz et al., 2004). By 2020, the European Union is hopeful of reducing noise level from the new aircraft to one-half of the average levels in 2001. New technology can come to the rescue by bringing improvements in the airframe, engines and terminal area operations [NASA 2003]. Generous funding by the authorities can help in controlling noise levels through better tools and metrics for measuring aviation noise impacts. Operational processes also need to be developed to reduce noise level (Waitz et al., 2004). Local Air Quality Airports pollute local air by emitting harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbons (UHC) and particulate matter (PM) from a range of airport sources, affecting human health and welfare. Due to weight, volume and safety limitations most of the land based clean air technologies don’t suit to aircraft. So far NOx has been the most difficult pollutant. Aircraft operations below 3000 feet add 0.4% to the gross national NOx stock, which would increase in the future. It is not easy to minimise NOx emissions due to physical and chemical challenges but it is possible to reduce it without a trade-off with fuel efficiency. Progress in combustor technology and airframe aerodynamics has reduced NOx emissions without affecting fuel efficiency. In the previous 35 years fuel burn per passenger-mile has been minimised by 60%. Two-thirds of this reduction has been because of improvement in engine technology with the rest because of advances in aerodynamics, weight and operations [Lee 2000]. In future, there is greater scope of advancement in airframes than in engines but air traffic will increase by 3% to 5% a year [NRC 2002]. Reduced emissions technology and operations must fill the gap to avert increased pollutant emissions from aircraft (Waitz et al., 2004). Technology and operations advancement can control emissions of NOx, UHC, CO and PM. It requires huge engineering, safety and cost challenges. The EC is hopeful of reducing 80% cut in NOx emissions by 2020. Engineering development is the basis of such huge reduction in NOx, UHC, CO and PM. Operational possibilities of reducing emissions and fuel burn exist in single-engine taxi, improved take-off and landing processes and sophistication in the air traffic management system to control en route and ground delays. Due attention needs to be given to these in national research plans but with increased attention because they may not cause comparatively near term improvements (Waitz et al., 2004). Climate Change The climate change impact of aircraft is a contentious issue. In Europe, this is the only most crucial environmental impact from aviation [SBAC 2001], while in the United States it comes after community noise and local air quality. Chemical emissions produce physical effects such as condensation trails, or contrails affecting climate. As per the 1999 special aviation study organised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) aviation functions cause nearly 3.5% of the anthropogenic storming of the climate in 1992. It shows that per unit of fuel burned, radio-active forcing from aircraft would nearly double to that of land-based use of hydrocarbon fuels [IPCC 1999]. According to a Report by the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Protection (RCEP), the net effect of contrail and aviation-promoted cirrus could be three to four times the radioactive forcing because of the CO2 emitted from aircraft [RCEP 2002]. If it is true then aviation could be blamed for between 3% and 15% of anthropogenic forcing causing climate change by 2050 [IPCC 1999] (Waitz et al., 2004). The environmental concerns on climate change do not stand much chance of reduction through operational, technological and policy alternatives as fuel per passenger-mile reductions by 60% have already been realised. Only 1% per year reductions is feasible in the approaching 15 to 20 years. Regulatory control and abidance is very crucial in controlling the climate change outcomes (Waitz et al., 2004). Interdependencies Noise, local air quality and climate effects of aviation are achieved through an interdependent set of technologies and operations but impact in one area can adversely impact other areas. For example reducing noise levels through operational and technological steps can cause increased fuel burn thus, increasing the impact on climate change and local air quality [SBAC 2001]. Emissions interrelationships make it complex to improve engine design as a reduction strategy since trade-off initiates among individual pollutants and between emissions and noise [FAA 2004a]. So far interdependencies between different policy, technological and operational alternatives and the full economic outcomes of these alternatives have not been suitable measured. There is need to develop an all-inclusive framework of aviation environmental analytical tools and methods to measure interdependencies between noise, emissions and economic performance to more efficiently analyse the total costs and benefits of the analytic tools. These tools can help in taking right decisions on new noise and emissions levels. It would also help in investing into research and development on operational and technological possibilities on cutting emissions and noise level. Huge amount of dollars invested can provide desired value by developing and operating aircrafts (Waitz et al., 2004). Conclusion Environment concerns whether related to noise, water, air or climate change need to be mitigated by developing efficient metrics and tools to measure and share aviation environmental effects. The human health should be given priority through the metrics. The technology should lead in providing the advanced scientific knowledge to bring the impact of aircraft operations and maintenance in context of other sources. With the usage of tools, an appraisal of integrated environmental and cost/benefit study of the policies and research and development functions should be attempted to: measure possible benefits of research aims such as source reduction technologies and operational progress measure the impacts of environmental limitations on national airspace network expansion answer for airline economics and capability in examining regulatory and research possibilities evaluate the effects on people of policies and operational outcomes comprehend aviation’s environmental impacts personally and comparative to one another (air quality, noise and climate) in terms of both damage costs and reduction costs These tools should be useful at local, regional, national and global levels to assist in experimentation and reporting at all of these levels. At technology, operations and policy level a determined and balanced approach needs to be followed to find alternatives to minimise unwanted impacts of aviation. To avoid near-term improvements preference needs to be given to creating and enforcing better operational processes for noise and emissions cut that fulfil safety requirements. Radical market and land-use alternatives need to be examined and enforced for mid-term improvements (Waitz et al., 2004). Considering the long term perspective but starting at once, integrated programmes must be enforced to introduce economically viable technologies to be developed allowing instant embedding into the aircraft and the engine. Strategically viable alternatives should be discussed within the interagency coordinating group and leveraged by better metrics and tools. Also, the significance of environmental regulatory concerns due to increased growth in air travel cannot be denied in the light of new rules affecting airport operations in terms of process-related shifts and possibilities in infrastructure investment. Crucial issues are related to changes to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) parameters used in deicing operations and oil spill prevention processes along with state and local agency directives to check and manage air pollution especially harmful air pollutants. Word Count: 2599 Bibliography ASEB, 2002. For greener skies: reducing environmental impacts of aviation. National Academy of Sciences. Available from: http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=1 0353&page=R1[Accessed 22 May 2011]. Federal Aviation Administration, 2006. Workshop on the Impacts of aviation on climate: a report of findings and recommendations. Available from: http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/policy_guidance/envir_policy/[Accessed 22 May 2011]. 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Available from: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:qW3PJW9q11UJ:www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33949.pdf+The+impact+of+increasing+environmental+concerns+on+the+operation+of+aircraft+and+the+aircraft+maintenance+industry&hl=en&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESghJhZfIUmgY1gTVcAe62PsCYV-FwjvyootzaZ5o6aNlLoC7POsa90y1ieMUARPS9r3uuHtT7cJv8q3LJHZKH6OVWyN0AwpXE0jjcRhN3Rnp5LAaoZJKPiS3rW4CqYx4iiuFIz1&sig=AHIEtbRIhR21UR3DzUVkoWNpKFXJ5YERZw [Accessed 23 May 2011]. National Centre for Social Research, 2006. Qualitative research. London: National Centre for Social Research. Available from: http://www.natcen.ac.uk/natcen/pages/hw_qualitative.htm [Accessed 14 August 2006]. Read More