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Journal of Air Transport Management 31 (2013) 15e17

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Analysis of airport noise exposure around Viracopos International

Airport using geographic information systems
Flavio Maldonado Bentes a, *, Tarcilene Aparecida Heleno b, Jules Ghislain Slama b
a
b

Jorge Duprat Figueiredo Foundation for Occupational Health and Safety, Av. Presidente Antnio Carlos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Graduate Studies and Research in Engineering, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

a b s t r a c t
Keywords:
Viracopos airport
Airport noise
Brazilian airports

This paper analyses airport noise exposure around Viracopos International Airport by quantifying the
proportion of highly annoyed people in surrounding zones using simulations, integrated noise models
and geographic information systems.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Airport noise is long standing and a major problem for
surrounding communities. The characteristics and impact of
aircraft noise vary but are generally inuenced by factors such as
the number of ights, their timing, the type of aircraft, and the
ight path (Sancho and Senchermes, 1983). According to Grampella
(2012), the technological development has brought signicant
improvements to reduce the noise of a single event but the noise
still remains a problem of major importance.
To counter the problem, governments, at both national and local
levels are imposing a variety of noise management measures
ranging from noise abatement procedures on the ground to limits
on the noise allowed by individual aircraft.
Airport noise generally has its origin in discrete events such as
a landing or takeoff, as well as the procedures of the aircraft on the
ground (Morais et al., 2008). The main sources of aircraft noise are
propulsion systems, which include engines and turbines, and also
the aerodynamic noise as a consequence of the structure being in
direct contact with air at high speed. Each aircraft component
considered as a noise source contributes signicantly to the landing
or takeoff, and its intensity may vary according to the procedures
adopted; e.g. the runway used or immediate ight path. Morrell
and Lu (2007) also nd that differences in aircraft operations,

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: avio.bentes@fundacentro.gov.br, avio.bentes@gmail.com
(F.M. Bentes).
0969-6997/$ e see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2012.11.001

engine types, emission rates and airport congestion are also inuencing the damage level. Aggregate noise nuisance is also inuenced by human (especially the number of residences near an
airport) and physical (the land contours around the airport)
geography.
Here we focus on quantifying highly annoyed populations
(HAP) at Viracopos International Airport (SBKP) in Brazil using
the INM1 software tools and geographical information systems
(GIS). The airport is selected because of the growing number of
passenger and cargo ights, many displaced from Congonhas
Airport (SBSP).
2. Noise exposure in communities
Following Schultz (1978), we consider the relationships
between noise levels, using the dayenight sound level (DNL)
metric, which has been adopted in many countries for airport
zoning, and the percentage of highly annoyed people. This metric is
based on the average sound energy produced by all aircraft
occurring events over 24 h. To the sound levels between 10 pm and
7 am, 10 dB (A) are added to reect the greater sensitivity of individuals to noise during the night. Equation (1) describes the DNL
metric.

1
INM is a computer model developed by the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) that evaluates aircraft noise impacts in the vicinity of airports. It is based on
an algorithm from the Society of Automotive Engineers e Aerospace Information
Report 1845 standard (Procedure for the Calculation of Airplane Noise in the
Vicinity of Airports).

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16

F.M. Bentes et al. / Journal of Air Transport Management 31 (2013) 15e17

8
2 22
Z 
<

10LAt=10 dt
DNL 10 log 1=244
:

Table 1
Viracopos International Airport logistics data.

39
Z7 
=

10LAt10=10 dt 5

(1)

22

Schultz developed DNL metrics for road, rail and airport, that for
the latter is;

%HAP 0:8533DNL  0:0401DNL2 0:00047DNL3

(2)

Subsequent papers by Fidell et al. (1988) and Miedema and Vos

(1988) sought to establish more sensitive relationships between
the percentage of the highly annoyed population and the DNL
metric and yield equations (3) and (4).

%HAP 78:9181  3:2645DNL 0:0360DNL

(3)

%HAP  1:395$104 DNL  423 4:081$102 DNL  422

0:342DNL  42

3. Methodology
Viracopos International Airport, operated by Infraero and
a Consortium Aeroportos Brazil (a group of private companies), is
located in Campinas, one of the most important technology growth
poles in Brazil around the University of Campinas-Unicamp and
several high technology companies. In recent years, the airport has
increased its air cargo capacity (it is now the second busiest cargo
airport in Brazil), being developed as part of the express lane
logistics chain into and out of Brazil (Infraero, 2012). Table 1
provides some details of the airport. It has an infrastructure allowing the operation of all types of aircraft serving a growing network of
domestic and international passenger and cargo markets.
To generate noise curves for the DNL metric using INM software
data relating to aircraft model, routes, takeoffs and landing procedures were collected and applied to equations (2)e(4) to estimate
the percentage of highly annoyed people by aircraft noise.
Initially, layers are imported from INM, and the noise curves
exported to layers and imported by Transcad. Using GIS, it was
possible to quantify the number of people within each noise curve.2
Using census information, the number of people in a census sector is
found and the noise curves superimposed on the census layers
allowing the calculation of the number of people in each noise curve.
To determine the number of people exposed to different noise
levels within ranges that can be analyzed individually, we quantify
by noise exposure bands that identies HAPs in groups with
various characteristics in terms of airport noise exposure. Equation
(5) shows, for example, the calculation of highly annoyed people in
the range 55e60 dB (A).

HAP5560 %HAP55 *IP55  %HAP60 *IP60

17,659,300 m2
86,978 m2
3240  45 m
6.8 million
30,000 m2
2010 places
72
81,000 m2
41 positions

Airport site
Aircraft site
Runway dimensions
Passenger capacity (per year)
Passenger terminal area
Parking lot (number of vehicles)
Number of check-in counters
Logistics terminal area of import and export cargo
Aircraft parking positions
Source: Infraero (2012).

4. Results
The noise curves calculated are seen in Fig. 1.
The 55 dB (A) noise curve covers Campinas, Valinhos and
Indaiatuba municipalities, while the other noise contours only
include Campinas. Using GIS we quantify the HAPs in different
ranges, by overlapping layers (Table 2).
Allocating the number of noise related HAPs to a band depends
not only on their percentage of the population, which is calculated
as a function of DNL, but also on the number of people in the
respective noise contours, identied through the use of Transcad.
Fig. 2 shows the values calculated.
We see in gure, that for the 60e65 range, the relative number
of HAP converges to the same value for all three calculation
methods. Although noise levels are higher in the latter ranges, there
is a lower noise exposure because there are restrictions on land use,
with controls over the building of schools, hospitals and homes,
according to Brazilian Civil Aviation Regulation 161. In 55e60 range,
the relative number of HAP found using the Schultz model is
considerably lower than for the others. This is due to controls over
night ights; night ight restrictions and curfews, night quotas, and

Fig. 1. Viracopos International Airport noise curves. Source: Study Group in Airport
Noise e GERA (2012).

(5)

where HAP5560 is the number of HAPs for the noise range 55e60 dB
(A), %HAP55 is the percentage of HAPs by noise calculated using
equations (2)e(4) to DNL 55, IP55 is the Transcad estimate of people
for noise curve DNL 55, %HAP60 is the percentage of HAPs calculated
using equations (2)e(4) to DNL 60, and IP60 is the Transcad estimated number of people associated with noise curve DNL 60.

2
Transcad works in vector form, enabling the use of various layered les
provided by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (2012) and can be
freely accessed.

Table 2
Highly annoyed people for different noise ranges.
Band

1
2
3
4
5
6

DNL
(dB(A))

Calculated
area (km2)

Identied
population
(people)

HAP for range

Schultz

Fidell
et al.

Miedema
and Vos

55e60
60e65
65e70
70e75
75e80
80e85

24,075
10,032
4182
1656
0.38
0.16

30,919
13,617
5677
1501
520
228

204
603
649
276
156
120

1615
1233
890
330
164
110

1794
1799
1335
487
233
147

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F.M. Bentes et al. / Journal of Air Transport Management 31 (2013) 15e17

17

Fig. 2. Relative number of highly annoyed people by noise ranges.

noise charges and penalties that are embodied in different ways in

the three metrics.

the Study Group in Airport Noise (GERA), that supported the

study.

5. Conclusions

References

This paper has quantied the people exposed to aircraft noise

around Viracopos International Airport using computer simulation
and GIS data. It has found that the size of the population that is
highly annoyed by noise around the airport is sensitive to the
metric of noise that is used, and in particular to the way that
nighttime air trafc noise is treated.

Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, 2012. Meshes of Brazilian Digital

Cities (Brasilia).
Fidell, S., Schultz, T.J., Green, D., 1988. A theoretical interpretation of the prevalence
rate of noise-induced annoyance in residential populations. Journal of the
Acoustical Society of America 84, 2109e2113.
GERA, 2012. Study Group in Airport Noise. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio
de Janeiro.
Grampella, M., 2012. Framework Denition to Assess Airport Noise and Aircraft
Emissions of Pollutant Based on Mathematical Models. PhD thesis, Universit
degli studi di Milano e Bicocca, Milan.
Infraero, 2012. Viracopos International Airport (Campinas).
Miedema, H.M.E., Vos, H., 1988. Exposureeresponse relationships for transportation
noise. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 104, 3432e3445.
Morais, L.R., Slama, J.G., Mansur, W.J., 2008. Use of Acoustic Barriers to
Control Airport Noise. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. VII SITRAER. 732e
744.
Morrell, P., Lu, H.-Y., 2007. The environmental implications of hub-hub versus hub
bypass ight networks. Transportation Research, D 12, 143e157.
Sancho, V.M., Senchermes, A.G., 1983. Acoustics in Architecture. Ofcial College of
Madrid Architects, Madrid.
Schultz, T.J., 1978. Synthesis of social surveys on noise annoyance. Journal of the
Acoustical Society of America 64, 377e405.

Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for
Graduate Studies and Research in Engineering (COPPE/UFRJ), the
National Council for Scientic and Technological Development
(CNPq), Foundation for Research Support in Rio de Janeiro
(Faperj) and Coordination for the Improvement of Higher
Education Personnel (Capes). Furthermore, we thank the Jorge
Duprat Figueiredo Foundation for Occupational Health and Safety
(Fundacentro), Laboratory of Acoustics and Vibration (LAVI) and