ABSTRACT
Airports are powerful generators of economic activity in a community. Some experts believe that an airport is the single most important piece of infrastructure a city has to sustain its economic base, providing an important transportation link to the outside world. Airport development projects may also be the largest infrastructure project a city or region ever undertakes. From initial conception to final completion, the process of planning, designing, and building, or expanding an airport can take decades and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. While most of this planning will be done by highly specialized consultants or staff, safety, noise, and sustainability issues make involvement of the local practitioner essential, particularly given that the number of air passenger miles is expected to triple between 2009 and 2030 and that urban areas are encroaching into the environs of many airports. In addition, in many areas the lack of an effective state and regional system of aviation planning makes these issues even more urgent at the local level.
