Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are increasingly being used for airport management. They integrate runway operations, advertising spaces, emergency services and provide valuable functions for construction and general airport infrastructure management – airports are small cities. The goal of these city-like places may connect more closely to urban planning and wider economic factors for major cities than we realise. Airports compete regionally and globally, for passengers and freight, and their success brings economic development and more.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are increasingly being used for airport management. They integrate runway operations, advertising spaces, emergency services and provide valuable functions for construction and general airport infrastructure management – airports are small cities. The goal of these city-like places may connect more closely to urban planning and wider economic factors for major cities than we realise. Airports compete regionally and globally, for passengers and freight, and their success brings economic development and more.
Airports have traditionally been viewed as places where airplanes land and take-off, bringing people to and from different locations. Freight is often unseen, except for those times we see large aircraft with signage indicating they are hauling freight. But airport management is now changing as the functionality of an airport is closely aligned to the capabilities of spatial data management and analysis tools.
At a meeting last week for GIS in Airport Management at Orly airport in Paris, France sponsored by Esri, I had the opportunity to listen to several European and Middle East airport operators speak about how they are using GIS in their airport operations.
Airports may have hundreds of gates where aircraft must be carefully scheduling and organised throughout the course of a day. Some airports see aircraft arriving and departing at a rate of 1 every 1.5 minutes – hundreds per day.
At airports like Manchester Airport in the UK, Madrid Airport in Spain and airports in Norway and other places, GIS tools are helping to provide information about leasing retail spaces, providing 3D flight information and supporting ground operations relative to the facilities. In other cases construction, such as that at Abu Dhabai International Airport is managed through the use of GIS technology and applications – connecting the infrastructure into building information modeling (BIM).
As Terry Bills, ESRI’s Transportation Industry Manager said, “GIS has a major role to play in airport management – airports are small cities.” Ian Koeppel, Transportation & Logistics Business Development Manager similarly indicated that “GIS technology can be used throughout a cross-section of airport functions.”
As I listened and watched the many presentations, it became clearer that airports functions as businesses in many ways. And managing the operations and spaces within airports can see many opportunities for return-on-investment from advertising management to signage locations, to emergency services and passenger flow. Efficient operations at airports mean reduced costs, more timely operations and, frankly, easier airport use.
Airports Compete
It goes without saying, airports compete with each other. If GIS can lower costs through higher efficiency gains, then more passengers can arrive, more freight can move and the general level of usable space increases to provide better services. On this basis some airports have better results that are tangible and intangible in scope and therefore compete with others. All you have to do is think about those trips you have made, then said to yourself – “I really don’t (or do) like that airport.”
Planning goes into making these experiences positive or negative to travelers, but significant real gains flow from effective, efficient and cost effective airport management. And, these often extend to the region as a whole.
3D Digital Cities
For many years digital cities have written about what they offer and why they are useful. Too few of them put forward a case of regional economic development. Those that do, such as the City of Berlin, Germany attempt to consider regional economic development as a reason for experiencing the 3D City Model – business is tied to the digital city model.
The catchment area of a city model must be considered and that includes the transportation network leading to and supporting the business within the generated 3D City Model. So – suddenly the city model boundary and extent is not only local, it has international perspectives. Not so surprising in a global economy.
How about linking airport activities (or rail for that matter) directly to the activities and locations of a city model? There are some very practical GIS airport management uses for city models and communication too.
Consider for a moment the new Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, an airport that is near complete but whose nearby residents are now suddenly complaining about which routes airplanes will take-off and land (discussed 10 years ago but forgotten apparently). However, 3D GIS can clearly help in such cases. 3D GIS airport management could provide 3D flight paths, timing, noise levels and a host of other information for consideration – keeping in mind we are now discussing how fast and high and which way an airplane must take off.
Connecting Transport to 3D Cities
The over-riding factor for connecting airports to city models is based upon the digital nature of the data management and analysis. Should airports and cities work together on this? I can’t say, but it seems logical. Transport to and from cities is simply an extension of wider activities and the data and technologies could support travelers from the time they arrive at a destination to the time they depart – if a fully integrated airport-city model approach were used.
One of the key take home points for me from this event was the observation that pre-GIS implementation, most airports do not manage their space well and are losing much revenue. With spatial data management tools, they gain many advantages including revenue and the ability to know how the entire airport system connects and operates.
