Increase Safety, Security, and
Environmental Performance
Solution Set Smart Sheet
This solution set includes Safety, Security and Environmental Performance.
Safety, Security, and Environment (SSE): Inherent in all evolving aspects of NAS operations and protocol are the three areas of safety, security and the environment.. Projected FAA investments in these three areas include:
- The Safety Management System (SMS)
- Airspace and information security. [Since information security is already included in the baseline of each NAS program, only airspace security capabilities are discussed in this solution set..]
- Environmental Management System (EMS) and specific operational demonstrations.
All NAS programs will continue to follow NAS institutional processes and protocol in safety, information security, and environment. As technology and best practices in the NAS-installed baseline advance, these three areas will be upgraded accordingly.
Safety
Safety Summary Description:
This solution set involves activities directly related to ensuring that NextGen systems contribute to steadily reducing risks commensurate with increases in other system capacity.Safety Background:
The potential for significant growth and increased complexity in the air transportation system requires a fundamental change in the way safety is managed. Although currently enjoying its safest period in history, the current United States Aviation System is on the cusp of one of the most significant periods of transformation in the NAS since the implementation of radar. As a result of these impending changes, risk reductions that keep pace with capacity increases are required. Safety management, the definition and implementation of risk management systems, as well as management of the overall transformation process, must ensure that safety is not only maintained but improved. Safety programs of the future will evolve from reactive data analysis to integrated historical and prognostic evaluation and management of safety risks, thus preventing future accidents and incidents. The current safety programs will evolve to an organizational culture that supports system-wide use of a SMS as well as widespread sharing of safety information. These safety improvement programs must occur during the most complete overhaul of aircraft systems and transformation in the history of the National Airspace System.Safety Operational Capability Description:
The Next Generation Air Transportation (NextGen) system must ensure safety through the implementation of a transformed air transportation system. This system must employ comprehensive, proactive safety practices and new, safer systems that enable the realization of national goals for air transportation. A common vision for safety, safety goals, and safety metrics will drive all aviation system improvement activities and investments. This vision must include operational practices focused on safety risk management, systems designed for safety, as well as regulations and technologies that are implemented consistently worldwide. This vision of Safer Practices requires an implementation of consistent and proactive safety management approaches that incorporate advanced prognostic methods to forecast safety risk potential, as well as encourages information sharing without fear of retribution. These elements must be coordinated to enable a robust, data-driven safety decision-making process, which is an essential component of the NextGen aviation system. The vision of Safer Systems includes enhanced systems interfaces that reduce risk, as well as advanced air and ground-based systems that address future air transportation, needs while preventing incidents and accidents. Additionally, the vision of a collaborative worldwide safety environment will increase the level of safety for air transportation across international and intermodal transportation system boundaries.Safety Commitments:
- National Aviation Safety Policy: New policy will be published for assuring safety in the NAS.
- National Standards for Safety Management: New standards will be published for safety management in the NAS.
- Data Fusion Demonstration: ASIAS integrated data systems will provide an analytical demonstration (case study) of the alignment of accident or incident data with geographical information (including topology and ground facility layout), environmental conditions (weather, visibility, etc.),air-traffic, aircraft and human performance data,
- Data Fusion From All Sources Enabled: This is an extension of the case-study methodology for NAS – wide data implementation for FY09. Incorporation of continuous air traffic data observation with ASIAS baseline information anticipates development of enterprise-level risk identification.
- Initial System-wide Integrated Assessments: Coordinated initial system-wide integrated assessments among all OEP stakeholders for near-term NextGen investments.Criteria for acceptability are based on both historical and forecast system trends that impact all areas of safety, capacity, and environmental performance.
Safety Near-Term Demonstrations:
NoneSafety Mid-Term Capabilites (2012 - 2018):
- Safety Management System Implementation:
- NAS-wide baseline criteria and safety performance benchmarks for acceptance of and implementation of new procedures and technologies;
- Early identification of safety risks allowing intervention strategies to avoid accidents and incidents;
- Timely acceptance of proposed new safety-enhancing technology, procedures, and training products;
- Integration of safety requirements in the early stages of product design and development to reduce costs and ensure earlier initial operational capability for hardware, software and procedures;
- Safety thinking throughout workforce, (development, acquisition, operations and operations support alike); and
- Alignment of R&D efforts maximizing the benefits provided.
- Safety Management Enterprise Services: Enterprise-wide safety management is developed as part of the NextGen program to fully integrate safety into all phases of NextGen. During design (system development, system implementation and operation), the ability to evaluate the performance of individual systems in the context of their net impact on risk (safety assessments) and the impact on overall system risk (integrated system safety analysis) is required. The combination of individual assessments and integrated analysis promotes the capability to support Safety Management Systems.
- Aviation Safety and Information Analysis and Sharing: The integration and sharing of high-quality, relevant, and timely aviation safety information is critical to the operational success of the Safety Management System. Implementation of ASIAS will promote the ability to identify future safety risk, conduct a causal analysis of those risks, and recommend solutions for the commercial aviation sector. By developing new analytical techniques and leveraging state-of-the-art information technology, FAA and its industry partners will be able to monitor the effectiveness of implemented safety enhancements, establish baselines and trending capability for safety metrics, and identify emerging risks. To do this, ASIAS provides easy access to a suite of tools used to extract relevant knowledge from large amounts of disparate safety information. The ASIAS environment is a combination of processes. This includes governance, technologies, information protection policies and standards, as well as architectures used to connect Safety Management System resources. Some of the relevant resources include information, organizations, services, and personnel. The evolving ASIAS will be indispensable to the global aviation community.
Safety Timeline:
Increase Safety Timeline (PDF)
Safety Benefits:
Safety-focused activities reduce risk in the air transportation system. Such activities also enable capacity or efficiency increases by ensuring that these efforts are accomplished safely. Capacity growth will be used to provide an assessment of the implications for NAS safety baseline change requirements. In turn, such changes will impact safety and capacity-enhancing investments on future safety performance.Safety Dependencies:
- Safety reporting systems to support the transition to integrated prognostic safety capability
- Safety culture assessments throughout FAA
- Safety risk assessments of NextGen concepts
- Integrated Risk Picture model of NAS
- Interagency acceptance of SMS standard
- ASIAS data management plan
Safety FY09 Key Enabling Activities:
FAA-wide SMS Implementation: Continue implementation of SMS within FAA lines of business starting with ATO, AVS, and ARP. Apply Safety Risk Management process to targeted NAS changes. Identify requirements to define the workforce and safety culture necessary for supporting NextGen concept. Apply integrated safety assessment process to the definition of safety improvement performance in the presence of NextGen investments.
Safety FY09 Key Research:
Undiscovered Safety Risk: Develop capabilities for undiscovered safety risk and vulnerabilities, including algorithms and models to flag items such as atypicalities, aberrations, and exceedances.Risk and Threat Analysis: Develop filters to determine risks and threats that may require focused attention and mitigations, using techniques such as pattern recognition, data visualization, data fusion, and data mining techniques. Analytical techniques will be augmented with subject matter expertise and human factor analysis.
Prognostic Risk Analysis Capability Development: Development of algorithms, processes, procedures and other tools to discover anomalous behavior or circumstances that may be precursors or predictors of risk. Modeling and simulation, human-in-the-loop and other techniques will be applied to data assimilated within the ASIAS platform for this purpose. Model validation will be undertaken with stakeholder overview, SME input, and results from demonstration programs.
ASIAS Research: ASIAS will undertake additional directed studies, known risk monitoring, tracking of CAST safety enhancements (SEs) and benchmarking metrics as follows: 50 known risks, 5 directed studies, 15 SEs, and 10 benchmarks. ASIAS will undertake a demonstration project with a selected number of airlines to fuse public and non-public data, which will include needed identification of flights in a protected manner. ASIAS will undertake a third demonstration project to fuse the vast amount of FAA data sets available centrally or distributed in the field with other information, such as radar tracks, weather information, and ATOS (surveillance data) for the purposes of identifying national trends and system risks.
Three original equipment manufacturers, up to10 maintenance organizations, the FAA ATSAP program, up to 5 new airlines Flight Operations Quality Assurance programs, and up to 15 new airlines Aviation Safety Accident Prevention programs will be integrated into ASIAS as additional nodes on the network.
Security
Security Summary Description:
Security is an element inherent in all aspects of NAS operations. In its capacity as the responsible agency for national navigation and control, FAA jurisdiction will continue to evolve. In carrying out the security mission, FAA has planned investments in both airspace and information security. In this solution set, airspace security capabilities are specifically called out. Information security, on the other hand, is already integral to the baseline of each NAS program. NAS institutional information security processes and protocols deliver robust information security. As information security technology and best practices advance, NAS-based information security will be upgraded accordingly.Security Background:
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 caused national security concerns to escalate. Airspace security disciplines have become increasingly complex. FAA is responsible for responding effectively and efficiently to security threat assessments made by the appropriate partner agencies. FAA also has an expanded role in national response and recovery for any threat to the nation, such as natural disasters (Hurricane Katrina) or preparation for biological events (pandemic influenza).Homeland and National Security Presidential Directive for Aviation Security, signed by the President on June 20, 2006, outlines five strategic goals for aviation security:
- Deter and prevent Terrorist Attacks and Criminal or Hostile Acts in the Air Domain
- Protect the United States and its Interests in the Air Domain
- Mitigate Damage and Expedite Recovery
- Minimize the Impact on the Aviation Transportation System and the U.S. Economy
- Actively Engage Domestic and International Partners
Current methods of performing airspace security operations are inadequate. Although a variety of communication and coordination tools, aircraft situation displays, and security related databases exist, there is limited connectivity among these systems. Analyses and data correlation are performed manually, and information sharing is limited to voice communication. In an emergency, such operations could be inefficient, costly, and time-consuming.
Security Operational Capability Description:
Future airspace security operations are depicted in the figure below. The operational security environment consists of various security partners, each with a user-defined operating picture based on common information shared rapidly and securely. This Shared Situation Awareness (SSA) capability will improve security operation by making it more effective. Digital communication, added to voice communication, will ensure accurate information sharing and timely decision-making.The security environment depicted below represents a layered, adaptiveapproach that will permit timely and effective responses. It includes appropriate risk management to security situations through automation and decision-support systems that inform human decision-making.
Future Airspace Security Operations (PDF)
Security Integrated Tool Set (SITS) will enable the System Operations Security organization to perform data correlation, NAS impact analysis of security or emergency actions, as well as trend analysis. NAS response to security risk assessments by partner agencies is intended to be accomplished in the same manner as for weather, special use airspace (SUA), and traffic management initiatives (TMIs). SITS will also support integrated security restricted airspace development and sharing capabilities. These capabilities will be seamlessly integrated with ATM and support defense, homeland security/disaster recovery and law enforcement operations, and will be scalable to meet required response and projected air traffic demand.
SITS will streamline processes, use automation to enhance human decision-making, improve operational security through shared situational awareness, and enable the agency to meet increased demand for security. SITS will also improve coordination and collaboration with various FAA security partners, consisting of other government agencies such as Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Secret Service, and the International partners.
SITS will enable future NAS airspace security to be achieved with layered, adaptive security services as outlined in the NextGen Concept of Operations. In addition, SITS will provide a platform to host partner agency requirements, if desired and funded by them.
Security Commitments:
- Cyber Security: Cyber Security Strategy Version 1.0
- Information Management and Exchange (IMEX) Plan: Information Management and Exchange (IMEX) Plan Version 2.0
Security Near-Term Demonstrations:
None
Security Mid-Term Capabilites (2012 - 2018):
- Operational Security Capability for Threat Detection and Tracking, NAS Impact Analysis and Risk-Based Assessment: Airspace security risk flight detection and monitoring functions are automated through (1) flight-specific risk levels provided by DHS, and (2) by trajectory-based risk assessment algorithms that include probing against security element volumetric expressions. Airspace security measures are planned and implemented taking into account NAS impacts, and post-event analysis capabilities providing feedback on overall impacts and areas for improvement.
- SSA and Information Systems Security (ISS) Integrated Incident Detection and Response: Cyber security incidents and operational security events are managed as part of a risk-informed, integrated prevention-response-recovery framework. Automation assists in detection and correlation of incidents and events so operators can more rapidly identify threats that may emanate from multiple sources.
- Information on System Security and Surveillance Integration/Protection: The processing, access, and integration of surveillance information within the NAS, including trajectory-based security information, will be protected by robust information security system capabilities.
Security Timeline:
Increase Security Timeline (PDF)
Security Benefits:
Shared situational awareness among all partners will improve data gathering and correlation, coordination, report generation, collaborative decision-making, and NAS impact assessment in security operations. Additionally, integrating security technically and operationally into NAS will result in cost savings and enable more effective security operations.Security Dependencies:
This solution set is dependant on: SWIM, TFM-M, ERAM, and AIM.
Security FY09 Key Enabling Activities:
SITS:
- Prepare materials for investment analysis requirements document (IARD) to be held in 2nd Q of 2009
- Prepare materials post IARD for the Final Investment Decision
- Continue to coordinate with mission partners concerning interfaces and program coordination
Security FY09 Key Research:
None
Security Mid-Term Capability (2012 – 2018) Details:
The following are the capability details for security:
- Operational Security Capability for Threat Detection and Tracking, NAS Impact Analysis and Risk-Based Assessment
- SSA and Information Systems Security (ISS) Integrated Incident Detection and Response
- Information on System Security and Surveillance Integration/Protection
Operational Security Capability for Threat Detection and Tracking, NAS Impact Analysis and Risk-Based Assessment
Description: Airspace security risk flight detection and monitoring functions are automated through (1) flight-specific risk levels provided by DHS, and (2) by trajectory-based risk assessment algorithms that include probing against security element volumetric expressions. Airspace security measures are planned and implemented, taking into account NAS impacts, as well as post-event analysis capabilities, providing feedback on overall impacts and areas for improvement.
Needs/Shortfalls: Airspace security is a shared responsibility that requires participation and collaboration of multiple agencies. Currently, threat detection and tracking are done manually by various agencies with expert judgment and incomplete information. Threat-related information is communicated through telephone calls. Additionally, security airspace volumes and access criteria are established regardless of the flight risks, without adequate consideration given to the overall NAS system impact. Anticipated growth in air traffic demand and complexity, and the continuous heightened threat in aviation will mandate an automated risk-informed approach, based on the best available information. Without it, security personnel will be unable to identify track, and manage threats in a timely manner.
Operational Concept: Flight threat detection has two main components: “static” and “dynamic”. The static capability is provided by security mission partners of the FAA. This capability synthesizes a large volume of static security-relevant data to assess the security risk levels of flights. Dynamic risk-assessment capability based on real-time flight behavior, such as communication continuity, destination change, and the 4D trajectory against its security conformance bounds, will be made available through an automated system. Once identified, flights with anomalous behaviors will be reported to the security stakeholders and tracked automatically until mitigation and resolution are complete. Additionally, security airspace volumes and their access criteria will be dependent on the flight risk profile and will be established based on the potential impact on the NAS system.
Design/Architecture: Information inputs to and outputs from may be exchanged with the en route, TFM, and terminal domains, as well as with AIM. Additionally, information from FAA security mission partners will initially be through pair-wise means or through a secured party line. (Eventually, NextGen security-related information will be exchanged among mission partners through the NextGen NEO infrastructure.) Mechanisms for secured digital communication/collaboration and logging to facilitate real-time and off-line analysis will be available. Analysis for security airspace volumetric expression and its impact on the NAS will be evaluated. Future system requirements will continue to incorporate the lessons learned from the JPDO NextGen NEO demonstrations and inter-agency joint security exercises
Dependencies: Connectivity and information exchange via SWIM with security mission partners (eventually NextGen’s NEI), TFM, ERAM, terminal automation, and AIM.
Benefits: Capacity, productivity, and safety. With enhanced shared situational awareness and risk-informed decision-support capability, security decisions could be made with more complete and better information. This would facilitate inter-agency coordination and collaboration. Consequently, NAS system needs could be considered in a timely manner with security actions projected and/or developed; disruptions to the NAS could be minimized.
Key Enabling Programs: TBD
Dependencies: TBD
Champions:
ATO Chief Operating Officer and the Senior VP for NextGen
External User: RTCA ATMAC Requirements and Planning Work Group
SSA and Information Systems Security (ISS) Integrated Incident Detection and Response
Needs/Shortfalls: The aviation system continues to be a target for attack, either in the air domain or in the cyber domain. The air domain threats range from using aircraft as a weapon or as a target of attack. The spectrum of cyber attacks range from low-level/low-impact to high-level/high-impact. Attacks could involve a combination of both. Today, the air domain and cyber security capabilities are largely separate with integration of information occurring occasionally, ad hoc, on an exception basis. Correlation of operational and cyber information to detect an incident, is accomplished manually, based on expert judgment, with no automation tools. Additionally, integration and sharing of the combined operational and cyber incident-related information within the FAA and externally with government and industry partners are accomplished manually with limited shared situational awareness. With traffic increasing in both the air and cyber domains, to correctly ascertain the situation and develop an effective response, it is critical to integrate event and incident information from multiple sources.
Operational Concept: In the future, improved information sharing and collaboration capability will be developed across both air and cyber domains. With the growing need for shared situational awareness, the operational personnel will need to process extensive data to find correlations if potential security incidents are to be detected. Such data correlation tasks will be assisted by an automation capability called Event Management Framework (EMF) to be deployed by the DoD. It provides the capability to discover and share information, recognize change, and develop and evaluate courses of action with separate, but related events. This capability would allow operators to execute preplanned courses of action and rapidly respond to crisis. EMF enables operators to set up tailored alerting criteria to automatically discover potential security incident-relevant information. FAA cyber incident information and related analysis from the DOT Cyber Security Management Center (CSMC) Security Information Management (SIM) capability is available to EMF for integration. The human operator can use the information to follow up on decisions regarding response actions. The overall concept of EMF is to provide analysts and decision-makers across DOD and non-DOD organizations with actionable information and expanded situational awareness. The capability will permit searching for, discovering, retrieving, correlating, and monitoring relevant information across multiple organizational domains, while supporting operational events.
Design/Architecture: The NAS cyber security capability is already employing SIM capabilities that will grow as the FAA increases its deployment of sensors and other automated cyber incident detection technology. Using EMF, the operational personnel can set up specific search criteria for information discovery. EMF automatically correlates a large amount of data to compile relevant data to detect potential security incidents.
FAA and its air domain and cyber security mission partners will address EMF’s outputs with established operational processes/procedures. Depending on the situation, FAA security personnel will collaborate with both internal and external mission partners to integrate their risk assessment and to develop an appropriate response plan.
Benefits: Capacity, productivity, and safety. SSA and ISS integrated incident detection and response will provide an enhanced ability to respond to security incidents while minimizing impact on the NAS, and leveraging technology developed by DoD for incident detection and analysis.
Key Enabling Programs: TBD
Dependencies: SWIM, CSMC, DoD EMF, SITS
Champions:
FAA: ATO Chief Operating Officer and the Senior VP for NextGen
External User: RTCA ATMAC Requirements and Planning Work Group
Information on System Security and Surveillance Integration/Protection
Description: The processing, access, and integration of surveillance information within the NAS, including trajectory-based security information, will be protected by robust information security system capabilities.Needs/Shortfalls: Surveillance information is evolving from point-to-point communications, based on unique protocols, and limited users, to a network-based service providing surveillance data to many authorized subscribers within the NAS and external to the NAS. Both the envisioned future surveillance service and the NAS require protection from INFOSEC risks.
Operational Concept: Protection measures which prevent a successful cyber attack on the surveillance network, or an attack on the NAS coming through the surveillance network, will be engineered in from the beginning. A risk management framework approach will be applied early in the system development life cycle, so that INFOSEC risks are identified in time for mitigation measures to be planned, integrated, and tested. Continuous security testing and monitoring will help insure security is maintained even as the NAS and the threat environment continue to evolve. The protection measures will leverage the available NAS-wide INFOSEC services and minimize the development of unique surveillance system-specific mitigation measures.
Design/Architecture: A risk assessment will be performed on the surveillance system and appropriate mitigation measures will be identified. Maximum use will be made of NAS Boundary Protection services, protection services offered by the FAA Cyber Security Management Center (CSMC), and FAA-wide Logical Access and Authentication Control Service (LAACS). These protection services will be integrated into the surveillance system. Integration of NAS-wide security services into the future surveillance service will be tested early with an operational prototype based on ADS-B.
Benefits: Acceptable INFOSEC risk and cost containment are the two key benefits. Successful application of the risk management framework ensures risks are identified early and proper mitigation measures are considered. Use of available NAS-wide INFOSEC measures will keep costs down and will simplify the certification and authorization (C&A) effort.
Key Enabling Programs: TBD
Dependencies: ERAM, Terminal automation, ADS-B, SWIM, NAS Boundary Protection, CSMC
Champions:
FAA: ATO Chief Operating Officer and the Senior VP for NextGen External User: RTCA ATMAC Requirements and Planning Work Group
Environmental
Environmental Summary Description:
This section involves activities directly related to energy production and use, as well as environmental considerations.
Environmental Background:
Anticipated increases in air transportation demand will place significant environmental pressures on various segments of the NAS. The primary environmental constraints on the capacity and flexibility of the NextGen will likely be community noise, air quality, global climate impacts, water quality, and energy production and consumption. Environmental issues have and will continue to constrain airport and airspace growth. Noise has been and will continue to be a key area of concern. However, air quality, global climate impact, and energy and water quality concerns are a growing challenge to enabling significant capacity expansion without a detrimental impact to the environment. Ultimately, to allow sustained aviation growth, the NextGen environmental challenge will be to manage aviation’s environmental concerns in a manner that reduces or limits their significant impacts.Preventing or reducing significant environmental impacts is critical to the success of NextGen. Even at today’s levels, aircraft noise, air quality emissions and water quality are strong constraints on airport operations and aviation system capacity. In particular, local environmentally-based restrictions are growing at exponential rates. Current critical issues also include global climate impact and energy concerns. To increase the NAS capacity to meet 2025 anticipated demand, we must reduce current levels of aircraft noise, emissions, and energy use and water pollutants to alleviate future environmental impacts that will otherwise severely constrain growth. The NextGen environmental management framework must also account for interdependencies among many environmental issues so that in addressing some, others are not exacerbated. The ultimate goal is achieving absolute reduction of significant aviation environmental impacts. If we do not achieve this goal, environmental restrictions will likely make it impossible to achieve a two-to-three fold increase in the capacity of the NAS.
Environmental Operational Capability Description:
Operational Procedures to Mitigate Environmental Impacts: The development and integration of clean and quiet operational procedures will foster National Airspace System (NAS) operational capabilities that function more efficiently and that contribute to mitigating environmental impacts. Improvements to increased efficiency will span across numerous operational procedures, policies and practices and automation systems in the NAS. These improvements will have to provide proof of lower noise and engine emissions as well as reduced fuel usage. By continuing to leverage the investments of the Partnership for Air Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction (PARTNER) Center of Excellence and its stakeholders, environmentally “friendly” Continuous Descent Arrival (CDA) operational procedures are being transitioned into the OEP and integrated into the NAS. CDA demonstrations have proven that optimal trajectory-based aircraft procedures offer significant reductions of environmental impacts. Trials and demonstrations reinforce maturation of operational approaches, where appropriate, and support the environmental goals of NextGen concept of operations. Environmental efficiencies beyond terminal operations are also being pursued to include surface traffic movements and En Route operations management. For example, under the Atlantic Interoperability Initiative for Reduced Emissions (AIRE) and the Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions (ASPIRE) Programs, ATC system demonstrations are being launched to investigate potential environmental benefits. Additional investments will further explore and demonstrate new capabilities. By 2025, coordinated decision-making through comprehensive automated systems communication/data networking of surface movement/en route/ terminal domains will be vital for total “gate-to-gate” environmental efficiency.
Continuous Low Energy, Emissions and Noise (CLEEN) Consortium: CLEEN will demonstrate alternative fuels as well as aircraft and engine technologies that reduce noise, improve air quality and lower greenhouse gas emissions. The goal is to have a fleet of quieter, cleaner aircraft that operates more efficiently with less energy. To accomplish this goal, a fleet that operates more efficiently with less energy usage and permits expansion of airports in a manner consistent with the environmental goals of the NextGen plan is mandated. A technology “readiness” level must demonstrate industry’s application of new environmental technologies. Solutions should involve technology improvements in engines and airframes in a timeframe capable of demonstrating successful maturation and certification of new technologies within the next 5-8 years. Starting in FY09, this initiative establishes a consortium to demonstrate aircraft and engine technologies that reduce noise and air quality and greenhouse gas emissions at the source. This structure focuses on developing and accelerating industry implementation of these new environmental technologies. As a result, it will progressively define a fleet that will operate more efficiently with less energy usage and permit expansion of airports in a manner consistent with the environmental goals of the NextGen plan. It will also show how alternative fuels for aviation will reduce emissions affecting air quality and greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy supply security for NextGen.
Environmental Management System (EMS): Support the design, development and implementation of an EMS that will optimize, administrate, and track environmental protection procedures, policies, and practices in a dynamic NAS environment as it moves towards NextGen.
Specific activities include:- Advance noise, air quality, and climate metrics to quantify and manage the impacts of technologies and operations associated with NextGen
- Develop decision support tools to dynamically manage environmental impacts
- Conduct validation modeling and field demonstrations of mitigation approaches
Activities that foster FAA ability to support the NextGen goal of environmental protection that allows sustained aviation growth include:
- Reducing, in absolute terms, significant aviation environmental impacts associated with noise, emissions, global climate change, energy production and use and water quality
- Balancing aviation’s environmental impact with other societal objectives, both domestically and internationally
Environmental Commitments:
- Develop Integrated Models to Assess Trade-Offs Between Environment and Capacity: Demonstrate a reliable model that balances environmental impact mitigation and operational capacity
- Establish Metrics and Formulate Policy: Metrics identified (with minimal uncertainty) for establishing a comprehensive (noise, CO2, NOx, Particulate Matter (PM) and other pollutants that impact health, climate, and balanced (impacts trade-off) environmental policy
- Explore Environmental Control Algorithms for Operational procedures to reduce emissions and noise: Validate advanced noise and emissions reduction of environmental controls in demonstrations.
- Establish the impacts of new aircraft technologies and alternative fuels on the NAS and advance any changes required to adopt: Approaches identified to insert new technologies and fuels with measurable environmental benefits and no adverse impacts on NAS.
- Complete Environmental Policy and Long-Term Targets: Complete an environmental policy document for long-term aviation environmental improvements, including targets for reducing noise and emissions.
Environmental Near-Term Demonstrations:
Under the Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE):
- Optimize Profile Descent (OPD)/Tailored Arrival (TA) demonstrations at Atlanta and Miami International airport.
- Conduct collaborative surface management demonstrations at Memphis and John F Kennedy International Airports.
- Conduct an Oceanic Trajectory-based Operational (TBO) demonstration, using manual procedures, to identify optimal flight profiles for aircraft traversing the Atlantic Ocean.
- Establish metrics and measurement procedures to determine the amount of jet fuel, emissions, and noise reduced by the AIRE partnership demonstrations.
- Demonstrate the application of Aviation environmental Portfolio Management Tool to inform NAS environmental protection.
Environmental Mid-Term Capabilites (2012 - 2018):
National Environmental Management System (EMS) Supports Integrated Environmental Performance: FAA and other relevant stakeholders will implement EMS to manage the environmental impacts of the air transportation system. FAA will implement, collaboratively with industry, operational procedures that mitigate NextGen environmental impact. FAA will establish and advance air transportation system infrastructure and adaptation required for implementing CLEEN technologies and alternative fuels.Environmental Timeline:
Environmental Performance Timeline (PDF)
Environmental Benefits:
Establish the most cost-effective approach to reducing significant aviation noise and emissions in absolute terms while enabling the future air traffic system to handle growth in demand up to three times current levels.
Performance targets, as documented in the FAA Flight Plan include:
- Reduce the number of people exposed to significant noise by 4 percent each year through FY2011, as measured by a three-year moving average, from the three-year average from calendar years 2000-2002.
- Improve aviation fuel efficiency per revenue plane-mile by 1 percent each year through FY2011, as measured by a three-year moving average, from the three-year average from calendar years 2000-2002.
For NextGen by 2015:
- Demonstrate that significant aviation noise, and local air quality emissions can be reduced in absolute terms (to enable up to three times capacity) in a cost-effective way through a combination of new vehicle technologies, cleaner and quiet operations, better land use and market based actions
- Document effects of particulate matter and global climate impacts understood to levels that allow appropriate action.
- Determine and mitigate significant water quality impacts
Environmental Dependencies:
Environment will be tied to Increase Arrivals/ Departures at High-Density Airports with an effort of Environmental procedures in high-density operations. It will also be tied to Weather and Airport initiatives to enhance the efficiency of the NAS, and thus reduce environmental impacts.
Environmental FY09 Key Enabling Activities:
All activities are contingent on pending budget decision.
Continue to further the identification and exploration of advances in Air Traffic Control (ATC) Communication, Navigation and Surveillance technology in the short- to medium-term to further optimize advanced aircraft arrival and departure, surface and en route procedures to reduce noise, fuel-burn and emissions.
Design, develop, and demonstrate implementation of Environmental Management System (EMS) approaches to dynamically manage environmental impacts on the NAS in the most efficient and effective manner possible.
Assess impacts of adopting new aircraft environmental technologies, called “Continuous Low Energy, Emissions and Noise (CLEEN) technologies,” and advanced alternative fuels for use in the NAS infrastructure and advance any NAS adaptation necessary to benefit from these technologies.
Specific activities include:- Accelerate new aircraft technologies and alternative fuels
- Identify and develop any new elements of NAS infrastructure required to support the operation of new aircraft and alternative fuel technologies
- Demonstrate flight and ground integration of new CLEEN technologies and alternative fuels in the NAS
- Explore environmental control algorithms for operational procedures to reduce emissions and noise
- Establish the impact of new aircraft technologies and alternative fuels on the NAS and advance any changes required to adopt
