Lighning Talk

1. DENVER AIRPORT
NOISE STUDY
By Max Maroney
Castle View High School
Castle Rock, CO

2. THE PROBLEM
• I was approached by the Colorado
Department of Transportation to solve
a problem involving the civilian use
airports in the Denver Metro Area. As
we all know, population is only
increasing, and as population increases
we see an increased need for housing,
recreational, and social estates to be
built. Though many prospective
homeowners prefer not to live near an
airport, it is a known fact that airports
themselves are commercial centers, and
their surrounding businesses are
generally well over. However, we have
yet to create a silent airplane, so the
problem presented to me was ‘Where
do we put homes that are near airports
but have the least chance of being
disturbed by aircraft noise?

3. WHICH
AIRPORTS?
• I am doing
this analysis
on the three
busiest,
civilian use
airports in
the Denver
Metro area.
They are
Centennial
Airport (APA)
in Centennial,
Rocky
Mountain
Metropolitan
(BJC) near
Boulder, and
Denver
International
(DEN), appx.
18 miles NE of
downtown.

4. WHERE IS
IT A
PROBLEM
NOW?
•
For my first analysis, I did a study of the current residential areas that are affected
by noise pollution by aircraft. I’ll start with Centennial, as this is my home airport
and the one closest to us. With data gathered from centennialairport.com, I visually
displayed the areas surrounding APA that have noise complaints filed, with a
graduated color for the areas with more reports. The green is areas will aircraft will
be during the departure and arrival stages, with high power settings and low
airspeed, the loudest phase of flights for any type of aircraft. The orange area is an
intersect of the two, where airplanes will always be spewing noise on the earth.

5. ROCKY MOUNTAIN METRO
Here we see the same principles applied to BJC, however,
my source site, jeffco.us, did not have the quantitative information regarding
noise complaints, only residential areas.

6. DENVER INTERNATIONAL
•
Here we see that Denver International Airport is in the middle of nowhere, as many of you can
attest to. There are no residential areas within the traffic perimeter of DIA. The airport it
replaced, Stapleton International, was alternatively surrounded in neighborhoods, and was
thus frequently attacked with noise complaints. I used business.flydenver.com for this
information.

7. WHAT DOES
THIS MEAN?
• The information shown on the previous
slides shows that the areas that are
affected by noise pollution of overflying
airplanes. Using the erase feature of
ArcGIS I was able to remove these areas
from the traffic area, as well as erasing
land that the Department of
Transportation had labeled as already in
use. The possible areas for residential
development are shown on the next
slides.

8. CENTENNIAL AIRPORT (APA)
Here we see
that much of
the area
around
Centennial is
already is use,
there are no
predominantly
large areas we
can use for
commercial
centers,
perhaps only a
shopping
center or
apartment
complexes in
any given spot.
• Total Available
Area is 21.39
square miles
•

9. ROCKY MOUNTAIN
METROPOLITAN (BJC)
• Here we see that BJC has a very large open use are on the western side of the airports
traffic area, a very good location for some substantial residential application.
• Total Available Area is 36.76 square miles.

10. DENVER INTERNATIONAL
AIRPORT (DEN)
•
Denver has by far the largest surrounding area that can be bought and applied to commercial use. This was of course one of the reasons that it was
built in the location that it was. In the future, as the Denver area expands in size, it will eventually envelop DIA, and when that time comes perhaps
this data could be used to avoid putting homes or other important commercial sites under the approach and departure paths of jet aircraft.
•
Total Available Area is 6,436.97 square miles

11. Other
Solutions
Aerospace giants Bombardier and
Pratt & Whitney have recently
began exploring solutions to
the noise problem that lie in
the airplanes themselves
instead of the ground
underneath them. New
engines being developed may
be able to reduce the noise
level of a jet during the
departure and arrival phases
of flight by 3 to 5 decibels
(Jansen, USA TODAY )

12. IN
CONCLUSION
• I reported to the Department of
Transportation that if we needed to
expand upon commercial or residential
areas, we should do it around Denver
International. This is because it is the
largest airport in the Denver area, and
has the largest area surrounding it that
is not already commercially used and
that is outside of the noise pollution
area beneath the approach and
departure paths of airplanes.

13. SOURCES
•
•
•
•
•
http://www.centennialairport.com/PDF/091312_NoiseReport.pdf
http://business.flydenver.com/community/noise/index.asp
http://business.flydenver.com/community/noise/reports/2q2012.pdf
http://jeffco.us/jeffco/airport_uploads/Noise_Report_2012.pdf
http://www.worldwatch.org/system/files/EP144B.pdf
•
http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2013/06/20/jet-engine-noise/2401871/