Sustainable integration of airports into urban planning - a review

Traditional airport planning and design considers the airport as an isolated entity accessed by aircraft and passengers. However, airports are rarely the final destination of air passengers - these have a need to access the airport from a widely distributed set of origins/destinations. The surface portion of air trips has a significant impact on the urban transportation system. In addition, airports also affect the land use in their vicinities due both to the noise generated by low-flying aircraft and the need to protect the airspace used by those some aircraft from obstacles protruding from the ground. This article reviews the most important issues associated with integrating airports into the urban environment in a sustainable manner.