Using Aircraft Tracking Data to Estimate the Geographic Scope of Noise Impacts from Low-Level Overflights Above Parks and Protected Areas

AbstractSightseeing air tours have proven to be a challenging management issue for many tourist destinations around the world, especially at locations meant to protect natural and cultural resources and wilderness character. Two of the primary challenges with managing air tours are a lack of information about their travel patterns and how such patterns result in a measurable noise impact to listeners. Recent studies have highlighted the usefulness of newer technology for tracking aircraft travel patterns, particularly over national parks. In this synthesis, we pair aircraft tracks with acoustic data using a quantitative observer-based audibility modelling software toolkit. The findings delimit the geographic scope of audibility of aircraft at sites in Hawai‘i Volcanoes and Denali National Parks and identify practical, 3-dimensional offsets distances that can be used to reduce the functional effects of air tour noise in terms of sound level