National Academies Press: OpenBook
« Previous: Chapter One - Introduction
Page 7
Suggested Citation:"Chapter Two - Study Methodology ." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Airport Sustainability Practices—Drivers and Outcomes for Small Commercial and General Aviation Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23486.
×
Page 7
Page 8
Suggested Citation:"Chapter Two - Study Methodology ." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Airport Sustainability Practices—Drivers and Outcomes for Small Commercial and General Aviation Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23486.
×
Page 8

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

8 This study was designed to build upon and expand the results of ACRP Synthesis 53: Outcomes of Green Initiatives: Large Airport Experience but with the focus on small airports. ACRP Synthesis 53 examined sustainability initiatives at 15 large airports. This Synthesis examines sustainability initiatives at 303 small airports nationwide. Small airports, as defined in this report, include general aviation (GA), reliever, and nonprimary commercial service. This study is intended to fill the gap in the available literature by focusing on sustainable initiatives at small airports. To synthesize current sustainability practices at small airports, it was important to define the popula- tion for this study. Using the 2015–2019 National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) Report, the categories of GA, reliever, and nonprimary commercial service were selected as the population for this study. Although these were the airports decided upon for this study, the findings presented here may also benefit small hub and nonhub airports. As of the 2015–2019 NPIAS, there are 2,553 GA airports, 264 reliever airports, and 125 nonprimary commercial service airports, resulting in a total population of 2,942 airports appropriate to this study (Table 3). With the total population determined for each region, a sample size of 340 airports was deter- mined. A sample of airports was randomly selected from each region and the states within each region. Once specific airports to be included in the study were determined, the region-specific Air- port Facility Directory was used to ascertain telephone numbers for the airport manager of each selected airport. Two data collection instruments were developed for this study. First, a survey questionnaire was developed for the purpose of gathering the bulk of the data for this Synthesis. The survey ques- tionnaire aimed to determine the degree to which airports had pursued sustainable initiatives and the drivers and outcomes associated with those projects. The survey also aimed to determine why airports had not pursued sustainable initiatives, including what might encourage airports to pursue such initiatives in the future. For the purpose of this study, sustainable initiatives were grouped in the following categories: • Economic viability (E) – Economic vitality • Operational efficiency (O) – Operational efficiency • Natural resource conservation (N) – Air quality enhancement/climate change – Energy conservation/renewable energy – Noise abatement – Water quality protection and water conservation – Land and natural resources management – Land/property use – Pavement management – Materials use and solid waste reduction/recycling – Hazardous materials and waste management/reduction – Surface transportation management – Buildings/facilities chapter two STUDY METHODOLOGY

9 • Social responsibility (S) – Socioeconomic benefits and community outreach/involvement (GRI 2011; Thomson and Delaney 2014). Because of the number of airports to be contacted and the detail desired in their responses, a deci- sion was made to conduct a telephone survey, rather than a more commonly accepted online survey (see Appendix A). Second, a telephone interview script was developed. The survey questionnaire was designed to gather broad findings from the entire sample, but the telephone interview script was developed to guide data collection that would lead to the development of a small number of case examples (see Appendix B). The 13 airports and one state aeronautics division selected to highlight as case examples were chosen based on their innovative sustainable projects, drivers and outcomes, and lessons learned. All telephone calls were made during June, July, August, and September 2015. In total, 340 airports were randomly contacted according to this methodology, and the managers of 303 airports agreed to participate in this study. This represents an 89% response rate. With this high response rate, results may be generalized to the population of 2,942 small airports across the United States. Airport Type Population Size General aviation (GA) 2,553 Reliever 264 Nonprimary commercial service 125 Total 2,942 Source: National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems Report 2015–2019. TABLE 3 POPULATIONS OF SMALL AIRPORTS FOR STUDY

Next: Chapter Three - Literature Review »
Airport Sustainability Practices—Drivers and Outcomes for Small Commercial and General Aviation Airports Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Synthesis 69: Airport Sustainability Practices—Drivers and Outcomes for Small Commercial and General Aviation Airports explores drivers and outcomes of green initiatives undertaken at small commercial and general aviation airports. Drivers could include financial viability, staffing considerations, or other social or environmental factors.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!