Page 171 - Planning and Design of Airports

138 Airp o r t Pl anning

Ground access—distance from the demand for aviation services,
regional highway infrastructure, available public transporta-
tion modes
Development costs—terrain, land costs, land values, soil condi-
tions, availability of utilities
Environmental consequences—aircraft noise, air quality, ground-
water runoff, impact on flora and fauna, existence of endan-

gered species or cultural artifacts, historical features, changes
in local land use, relocation of families and businesses, changes
in socioeconomic characteristics
Compatibility with area-wide planning—impact on land use, effect
on comprehensive land-use plans and transportation plans at
the local and regional levels
Selection—the final step is selecting and recommending a preferred

site. While a weighting of the evaluation criteria and weighted
ratings or ranking of the alternative sites is often used in selecting
a site, caution must be used in applying this technique since it
introduces an element of sensitivity into the analysis. The process
should focus on providing decision makers with information on the
various sites in a manner that is understandable and unbiased.

The Airport Master Plan
An airport master plan is a concept of the ultimate development of a
specific airport. The term development includes the entire airport
area, both for aviation and nonaviation uses, and the use of land adja-
cent to the airport [1, 4, 9]. It presents the development concept
graphically and contains the data and rationale upon which the plan
is based. Figure 4-2 shows a simple flowchart of the steps for prepar-
ing an airport master plan. Master plans are prepared to support
expansion and modernization of existing airports and guide the
development of new airports.
The overall objective of the airport master plan is to provide
guidelines for future development which will satisfy aviation demand
in a financially feasible manner and be compatible with the environ-
ment, community development, and other modes of transportation.
More specifically it is a guide for
1. Developing the physical facilities of an airport
2. Developing land on and adjacent to the airport
3. Determining the environmental effects of airport construc-
tion and operations
4. Establishing access requirements
5. Establishing the technical, economic and financial feasibility
of proposed developments through a thorough investigation
of alternative concepts