Variation in attractive sources around airports deriving from territorial development and landscape transformations may have an effect on the increase of risks for aviation as well as on wildlife protection. In both the rural and urban environments, the presence of wildlife attractive sources in the airport surroundings increases the risk of collision between a wild animal and an aircraft, named ‘Wildlife Strike’. The main objective of this study involved the acquisition of basic knowledge useful to control this risk around airports in different seasons. To this aim, supervised classification of open-source remote sensing imagery made available within the ESA Copernicus program was considered as an easy and low-cost solution to the problem of information updating. The integration of this information into a GIS allowed localisation of vegetation and water surfaces bodies in relation to airport ‘Obstacle Limitation Surfaces’ (OLS), ‘Rete Natura 2000’ (SIC/ZSC and ZPS) areas, and the ‘Important Bird Areas’ (IBA) that play a key role in birdlife protection. The case study was related to the 13-km territorial area surrounding the airport of Catania, Italy. In detail, the vegetation coverage was found to increase to about 40% of the total investigated area from summer to early spring. The monitoring of these attractive sources for wildlife, in different seasons of the year made it possible to obtain information about the periods in which it is most useful to reduce the risk. Further geostatistical analyses of kernel density performed by using GIS tools have defined the areas of greatest importance in relation to the weight of their suitability and proximity to the airport considered.

Geospatial Tools Applications for the Analysis of Attractive Sources Related to Airport Wildlife Strike

D’Urso Provvidenza Rita
Secondo
;
Arcidiacono Claudia
Ultimo
2023-01-01

Abstract

Variation in attractive sources around airports deriving from territorial development and landscape transformations may have an effect on the increase of risks for aviation as well as on wildlife protection. In both the rural and urban environments, the presence of wildlife attractive sources in the airport surroundings increases the risk of collision between a wild animal and an aircraft, named ‘Wildlife Strike’. The main objective of this study involved the acquisition of basic knowledge useful to control this risk around airports in different seasons. To this aim, supervised classification of open-source remote sensing imagery made available within the ESA Copernicus program was considered as an easy and low-cost solution to the problem of information updating. The integration of this information into a GIS allowed localisation of vegetation and water surfaces bodies in relation to airport ‘Obstacle Limitation Surfaces’ (OLS), ‘Rete Natura 2000’ (SIC/ZSC and ZPS) areas, and the ‘Important Bird Areas’ (IBA) that play a key role in birdlife protection. The case study was related to the 13-km territorial area surrounding the airport of Catania, Italy. In detail, the vegetation coverage was found to increase to about 40% of the total investigated area from summer to early spring. The monitoring of these attractive sources for wildlife, in different seasons of the year made it possible to obtain information about the periods in which it is most useful to reduce the risk. Further geostatistical analyses of kernel density performed by using GIS tools have defined the areas of greatest importance in relation to the weight of their suitability and proximity to the airport considered.
2023
978-3-031-30328-9
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
125Trifilo_et_al_final.pdf

solo gestori archivio

Tipologia: Altro materiale allegato
Licenza: NON PUBBLICO - Accesso privato/ristretto
Dimensione 1.76 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
1.76 MB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/558708
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 0
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact