The Public Safety Zones around Small and Medium Airports

Di Mascio, Paola; Perta, Giuseppe; Cantisani, Giuseppe; Loprencipe, Giuseppe · 2018 · DOAJ

DOI: 10.3390/aerospace5020046

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Summary

This study addresses the inadequacy of standardized Public Safety Zones (PSZs) for small and medium one-runway airports, particularly within the Italian regulatory framework. Current regulations, such as those by the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC), often apply fixed, restrictive land-use constraints based on runway codes rather than actual traffic volumes. This approach can impose unnecessary restrictions on low-traffic airports or fail to account for specific operational realities, such as prevalent wind directions and terrain constraints. The authors aim to redefine PSZs by correlating their geometry with the actual volume and mix of air traffic, thereby aligning safety zones with probabilistic risk assessments. To achieve this, the researchers utilized the Sapienza Airport Risk Analysis (SARA) program, which implements a third-party individual risk analysis methodology. The model integrates three sub-models: accident occurrence, accident dispersion, and accident consequences. It employs Weibull and Gamma probability density functions to define longitudinal and transverse distances from the runway, accounting for actual aircraft routes. The study categorized airports into five groups based on annual movements (ranging from under 10,000 to over 75,000) and grouped aircraft into six ICAO classes (A–F). For each category, a reference aircraft was defined using weighted averages of maximum take-off weight and accident rates. The analysis assumed a traffic distribution of 95% on one threshold and 5% on the other, reflecting typical upwind operations at Italian airports, and calculated risk contours at the $10^{-6}$ level, which defines the boundary for land-use restrictions. The results demonstrate that PSZ dimensions are directly correlated with traffic volume and aircraft mix. As annual movements decrease from Category I to V, the area, length, and width of the PSZs significantly reduce. For instance, the PSZ area for a Category I airport with 100,000 movements is substantially larger than that for a Category V airport with fewer than 1,000 movements. The study also highlights asymmetry in risk contours; the zone extending from the landing threshold is larger than that from the take-off threshold due to the higher concentration of operations. Comparisons between the SARA-derived zones and actual airport analyses showed differences of less than 15% in total PSZ area, validating the model's accuracy. The significance of this work lies in its proposal for a dynamic, traffic-based definition of Risk Plans rather than static, default configurations. By aligning PSZs with actual operational data, the method offers a more precise tool for urban planning and land-use compatibility around small and medium airports. This approach ensures that safety constraints are proportional to the actual risk, potentially reducing unnecessary restrictions on development while maintaining public safety standards. The findings support the revision of existing aviation standards to incorporate probabilistic risk assessments tailored to specific airport characteristics.

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