Infrastructure

Deterministic Models for Degraded Airside Capacity and Delays

Rakas, Jasenka
Schonfeld, Paul
2004

This paper presents deterministic models for estimating airspace and airport capacity and delays during equipment outages. The National Airspace System (NAS) is very complex and consists of almost 48,000 reportable facilities and services that support air traffic control with very diverse functions and technologies. To better understand NAS performance and develop a methodology for estimating degraded capacity, previous studies about equipment outages and about airspace and airport performance are first reviewed. A deterministic aircraft separation model is used to estimate degraded...

Dissecting Lightning Strike Hazard Impact Patterns to National Airspace System Facilities in the Contiguous United States

He, Yiyi
Yue, Xiangyu
Lindbergh, Sarah
Gao, Jianxi
Graves, Chuck
Rakas, Jasenka
2022

Lightning strikes pose a severe threat to the United States (US) National Airspace System (NAS). Although the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) implements lightning protection practices and procedures to protect personnel, electronic equipment, and structures within the NAS, many lightning-induced outages still occur. To date we found that most research on lightning-induced facility outages has focused on understanding the physical processes of lightning strike effects on aircraft and airport ramp operations. Very little research has been done on examining the overall patterns and...

Economic Impact of a Lightning Strike–Induced Outage of Air Traffic Control Tower: Case Study of Baltimore–Washington International Airport

Ding, Wenzhe
Rakas, Jasenka
2015

This research investigates how lightning strike–induced outages of airport infrastructure and facilities affect airport performance from an economic perspective, using Baltimore (Maryland)–Washington (D.C.) Thurgood Marshall International (BWI) Airport as a case study. On September 12, 2013, lightning struck within 300 m of the air traffic control (ATC) tower at BWI, causing injury and ATC tower and airport closures. The study findings reveal that the economic losses of the outage-related delays from that single event were almost five times higher than the ATC tower refurbishment that was...

Equity Assessment of Transportation Should Incorporate Materials, Supply Chains, and Targeted Mitigation Policies

Greer, Fiona
Bin Thaneya, Ahmad
Apte, Joshua
Rakas, Jasenka
Horvath, Arpad
2024

California must build, operate, and maintain transportation infrastructure while ensuring that the health of communities and the planet are not compromised. In addition to vehicleemissions, supply chain inputs and energy use from constructing and maintaining transportation projects (e.g., roads, airports, bridges) result in pollution that contributes to climate change and impacts the health of local communities. Project-specific air and noise pollution can further burden vulnerable populations. By assessing transportation projects using a life-cycle perspective, all relevant emission...

Estimating Infrastructure Condition from a Biased Sample

Gupta, Gautam
Rakas, Jasenka
Hansen, Mark
2009

In this paper, we address the problem of making inferences about a population of infrastructure facilities from a subset that is a biased sample. We consider the case in which the sample is biased toward facilities in worse condition or requiring more expensive repair. Two methods are developed that incorporate a model of the process through which the sample is selected. One of the methods is based on well-known truncated distributions, whereas the other assumes that the bias operates continuously. The methods are applied to a class of facilities under the Federal Aviation...

Future Climate Scenarios for Runway Length: Assessment of Wet/Dry Runway Surface Conditions With Observational Precipitation Data

Rakas, Jasenka
Lukovic, Jelena
2021

This report presents a geostatistical method for analyzing wet/dry runway surface conditions using observational precipitation data for the United States (U.S.). Using the most recent U.S. Fourth National Climate Assessment as a primary resource, observed precipitation changes related to wet/dry days in the U.S. and their regional trends were identified. Two sources of daily U.S. observed precipitation data were used: (1) the National Weather Service (NWS) Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) and (2) the Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN). Then, the regression kriging method was...

Greener Transportation Infrastructure: Theoretical Concepts for the Environmental Evaluation of Airports

Fann, Jean-Christophe
Rakas, Jasenka
2011

The presented methodology has two fundamental goals: first, to foster greener design practices among airport managers, planners, and designers, and second, to establish a dynamic dialogue between all airport stakeholders, while overcoming the shortcomings of traditional environmental impact assessments and thus ensuring capacity enhancement. The innovative aspects of the methodology are the combination of a flexible implementation strategy, the use of Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) with cost and utility functions, and a structured definition of environmental sustainability...

Life-Cycle Approach to Healthy Airport Terminal Buildings: Spatial-Temporal Analysis of Mitigation Strategies for Addressing the Pollutants that Affect Climate Change and Human Health

Greer, Fiona
Horvath, Arpad
Rakas, Jasenka
2023

The potential environmental and human health impacts associated with constructing and operating terminal buildings is explored for commercial airports in the United States. Research objectives are to quantify: (1) baseline and mitigated greenhouse gas (GHG) and criteria air pollutant (CAP) emissions; (2) operational costs; and (3) climate change damages from terminal building construction and materials, operational energy consumption, water consumption and wastewater generation, and solid waste generation. An Excel-based decision-support tool, Airport Terminal Environmental Support Tool (...

Mitigating Exposure and Climate Change Impacts from Transportation Projects: Environmental Justice-Centered Decision-Support Framework and Tool

Horvath, Arpad
Greer, Fiona
Apte, Joshua
Rakas, Jasenka
2023

California must operate and maintain an effective and efficient transportation infrastructure while ensuring that the health of communities and the planet are not compromised. By assessing transportation projects using a life-cycle perspective, all relevant emission sources and activities from the construction, operation, maintenance, and end-of-life phases can be analyzed and mitigated. This report presents a framework to assess the life-cycle human health and climate change impacts from six types of transportation projects: (1) Roadways; (2) Marine ports; (3) Logistical distribution...

Modeling the Impact of Equipment Outages on National Airspace System Operations

Rakas, Jasenka
Yin, Huifang
2012

This study is part of a larger effort initiated by the FAA’s System Capacity Office, Capacity Initiative Division, toward developing a methodology for assessing airport performance and establishing airport efficiency metrics for runway and airport utilization.