Methodology for Environmental Sustainability Evaluation Of Airport Development Alternatives

Abstract

This study develops a new approach for the evaluation of greener airport systems. The proposed concepts demonstrate how to implement greener practices from the early stages of an airport infrastructure project in an economically rational and stakeholder-focused manner. Objectives of the proposed methodology are two-fold: (1) to promote greener design practices among airport planners, designers, and managers, and (2) to institute active communication among all airport stakeholders. The study contributes to the state of the knowledge in airport environmental management by proposing the combination of five distinct considerations: (1) the evaluation of environmental sustainability with a focus on the planning and design stages of airport facilities, (2) a procedure for screening and ranking alternatives, (3) examples of applicable performance criteria, objectives and indicators with sample scoring procedures, (4) a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach combined with cost and utility functions, and (5) a flexible implementation strategy to enable end-users to adjust the complexity of the evaluation. This study is intended to open a discussion for the development of a methodological tool that fulfills aims of promoting greener airport design, while at the same time satisfactorily addressing stakeholder concerns.