ACRP IdeaHub Ideas

The objective of this research is to create a database of performance benchmarks for airport facilities. Airport staff need a better understanding of key operational metrics associated with building performance in order to improve efficiency, decrease operating costs, and reduce environmental impacts. A standard system which normalizes for weather, location, carbon intensity of utility supplied energy, and airport specific... more »

Establish if and how recycled (pyrolyzed) carbon fibers can be used in place of virgin carbon fibers for achieving comparable performance at lower material costs.

By understanding what other airports are doing in the very wide subject area of sustainability, it may spur airports to try different means of conserving energy, recycling materials, or otherwise improving its sustainability practices. By looking not only at the practices, but the results, the challenges to implementation, and the costs of implementation, airports will be provided with guidance to improve their practices... more »

Airports have for decades been managing and remediating contamination of soil and groundwater resulting from past practices. However, within the past two years airports have been surprised by a previously unrecognized environmental threat from a family of compounds found in firefighting foam known as perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS). A synthesis study to provide necessary education on the subject is proposed. It is... more »

Sustainability and environmental mitigation are rapidly being incorporated into construction efforts at airports to mitigate and offset environmental impacts such as air emissions, water quality issues, etc. Naturally, every airport and their associated construction efforts and ability to incorporate sustainability vary on multiple fronts. This effort would provide a synthesis of construction sustainability and environmental... more »

In accordance with the Clean Water Act, airports must responsibly manage stormwater runoff. Unlike highways, which have had extensive research on stormwater runoff, there is little data that indicates water quality of stormwater runoff from existing airports and airfields. There is preliminary indication from small studies that runoff from various airport land uses is cleaner than most regulatory staff assume, mostly... more »

Perform economic, environmental and social benefits analysis of using plant based diet in airports and flights.
Industrial meat, poultry, and dairy production has a huge footprint of resource consumption--energy, water, and land. As a result the practice produces air, water and land pollution. The practice also causes human health related deceases.

A triple Bottom Line analysis of low carbon plant based food usage... more »

To produce a guidance document that presents airports with their options for various environmental certification and accreditation programs and provides detailed yet easy-to-follow methodology on how to obtain them.

The Guidebook for Environmental Management of PFAS at Airports will provide airport managers with a comprehensive yet practical resource for managing the environmental risks of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in water, soil, and wastewater at and near the airport.

This guide would provide information and perspective on airport opportunities for water reuse, at a time of renewed national focus and strategic initiatives supporting considerations and implementation of water reuse. This research would generate targeted information to help airports better understand the financial, environmental, and operational challenges and opportunities for water reuse.

"The objective of this project is to research best practices focused on managing the resources at airports to optimize the number of runways and taxiways that can be kept open during winter storms. The guidelines should include using process optimization to reduce variation caused by unpredictable weather events and computer simulation analyses to optimize the number of equipment needed, resources required, and optimize... more »

This research would summarize the best of practices through survey of airports and consultants; evaluate the effectiveness of subsurface drainage configurations by investigating field performance of airport pavements with and without drainage features; quantify the cost and benefits of including subsurface drainage by comparing any potential extension in service-life with increased construction and maintenance costs;... more »

The objective of this research is to develop guidance for airports to quantitatively identify the contributions of airfield pavement deicers to environmentally relevant characteristics of stormwater discharges, such as COD and BOD.

The purpose of this synthesis is to compile research, reports, and practices related to state and local regulations, seaplane operation, policy issues, arguments for and against aircraft and motorboat usage, and sample regulations, practices or guidelines regarding invasive species control.

The synthesis will serve as a useful reference document for presenting data and informing policymakers, seaplane operators, regulators,... more »

Project would review forensic/fingerprinting approaches being employed in the industry for PFAS source differentiation, assess the validity and usefulness of the approaches used, and summarize those approaches in a guidance document. Additionally, the project would create a tool for airports to perform some level of fingerprinting assessment of PFAS impacts to soil or groundwater to discrimnate between multiple sources... more »