Category: News

Aviation engineering experts have revealed a new framework that could reduce delays, improve efficiency and cut pollution at major international airports.

With increasing air traffic, rising fuel costs and stricter environmental targets, more efficient airport ground operations are needed for sustainable air transportation.

Dr Michal Weiszer, together with Dr Jun Chen and Dr Giorgio Locatelli at the School of Engineering, University of Lincoln, UK, have proposed a more systematic and holistic approach which would see waiting times reduced for passengers and aid more environmentally friendly operations.

This new model, detailed in the academic journal Applied Energy, combines the scheduling and routing of aircraft, 4-Dimensional Trajectory (4DT) optimisation (the integration of time into the 3D aircraft trajectory), plus runway and airport bus scheduling. It focusses on different objectives, in particular detailed fuel consumption at different power settings which was not considered in previous studies. It was tested on real-world data at Doha International Airport, which closed in 2014 to make way for the new commercial airport Hamad International Airport.

Lead author Dr Weiszer, Research Fellow at Lincoln’s School of Engineering, said: “By 2030, it is forecasted that the number of airline passengers globally will double to about 6 billion per year. Without action, 12 per cent of flights could not be accommodated because of lack of airport capacity. This, together with the global effort to meet ambitious environmental targets such as ensuring ground operations in Europe are emission-free by 2050, combined with rising fuel costs, is pushing the airlines and airports to reduce fuel consumption and their operational costs as much as possible.

“In this study we tested a new concept, which is the cooperation and sharing of real-time data between airports, aircraft operators, ground workers and air traffic control in order to reduce delays, improve the predictability of events and optimise resources. As the proposed approach is better in terms of performance, economic and environmental criteria, we believe this is a helpful tool to provide information for decision makers at airports.”

Previously, problems in sustainable air transportation, such as ground movement of both aircraft and vehicles, runway scheduling and ground services, were treated in isolation since information, such as landing time, pushback time and aircraft ground position, are held by different organisations with sometimes conflicting interests.

As these problems are interconnected, the Lincoln team’s creation of a multi-objective algorithm to provide a systematic framework to optimise efficiency, environmental assessment and economic analysis, greatly informs the body of work surrounding sustainable air travel.

The researchers believe the most benefit would be obtained by large and busy airports, where the runway needs to be used as efficiently as possible, with high volume traffic on the airport surface and increased need of ground services. Airports that face strict environmental regulations, therefore placing more focus on fuel consumption, may also find the proposed approach beneficial.

Planning can now be reviewed to further improve airport capacity and decrease excessive waiting times for passengers.

The study paves the way for a number of further research developments which will be investigated by the team in Lincoln. Future research will focus on including emissions into the optimisation framework, improving realism in the planning process and considering changing economic costs depending on busy or quiet periods of the day.

Written by Marie Daniels, Press Officer

Grant funding from the British Council will enable an international team of researchers to address pressing environmental issues affecting poor communities living in underdeveloped areas of Egypt.

Dr Amira Elnokaly, Programme Leader for MSc Sustainable Architectural Design at the University of Lincoln, UK, has been awarded £40,000 to establish a research network for generating new sustainable design strategies and approaches, which will focus on improving the social welfare of low and middle-income communities and benefitting poor and vulnerable populations in urban areas of Egypt.

She said: “In Egypt there is governmental pressure for rebuilding communities and providing long-term strategies for sustainable development. Regeneration clearly does not happen overnight, but setting clear agendas for sustainable development and designing redevelopment roadmaps can reinforce a sense of community, make an important contribution to the local economy and act as a catalyst for improvements to the wider area.

“We therefore hope the outcomes of our investigations will have a real impact and be of utmost importance to researchers, developers and the governmental sector, as the agenda is set for building sustainable communities across Egypt.”

Dr Elnokaly will lead a pioneering research event in Aswan, Egypt, with the funding from the British Council’s Newton Fund Researcher Links initiative, which brings together academics, professional practitioners and early-career researchers to encourage international collaboration.

The four-day workshop, hosted in partnership with the Department of Architecture at Cairo University, takes place in December 2015. It will explore topics including sustainability and positive social change, regenerating heritage sites for sustainable communities, and the awareness and use of clean energy.

“Sustainable design isn’t just about building an efficient and resilient physical environment – although that of course is an important aspect of our work. Research shows that strategies focusing on social, cultural and economic, as well as environmental, sustainability reap great rewards in terms of supporting a community’s cultural identity,” Dr Elnokaly said. “This is particularly the case in countries like Egypt, where it is so important to balance the great historical and cultural significance of an area on one hand with its local economic viability on the other.”

Researchers from across Egypt and the UK will aim to develop a new understanding of urban and community resilience in the country, make recommendations for new eco-cities to avoid unplanned development and energy blackouts, and establish new research and enterprise collaborations which could benefit the sustainable design agenda in Egypt for years to come.

Dr Elnokaly will be joined by colleagues from the University of Lincoln’s School of Architecture & Design, Dr Anna Catalani and Dr Ahmed Elseragy, who will present the work of their research groups in Lincoln, which study topics including liveable cities, cultural contexts, and sustainable design and habitat.

The workshop takes place from 13th – 16th December 2015. It will be attended by 20 UK and 20 Egyptian representatives, and early career researchers from across the UK are invited to apply now for a fully-funded place. To express an interest and to request more information, applicants can contact Dr Elnokaly directly via email: aelnokaly@lincoln.ac.uk.

Story by Elizabeth Allen – PR Officer