A Research Roadmap for Aircraft Noise

As part of the aviation industry, airports are critical to the delivery of the economic and social benefits of air transport and remain committed to continually developing and expanding capacity to meet growing demand. At the same time airports recognise the need for this demand to be met sustainably and are consequently focused on work to reduce and mitigate their impacts on the environment and neighbouring communities. Heathrow has been working with other airports to consider how best to influence the international research agenda - ultimately aiming to enhance the quality of life around airports and recognising the need to focus on the local communities. This needs to consider how to improve their well-being, and go beyond just weighting the negative environmental impacts at local level against the positive socio-economic impacts at national level. The objectives for the research agenda are to encourage research to build a wide-ranging knowledge base, set a broader context for considering the impacts of aviation noise to ensure a more balanced and well-informed debate, better support evidence-based policy making and dialogue, and gain the strategic engagement from funding bodies to support independent research. This paper aims to introduce a research roadmap to promote discussion.