Areas of Restricted Usage – Problematic Sphere of Airport Operations on the Example of the Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport

Abstract

Airports and their surroundings should develop harmoniously aiming at the management and functional integration of jointly used space. The idea results also from the corporate social responsibility (CSR) approach, which takes account of social interests, environmental problems and multi-directional relational ties.
Intensified air traffic stimulates growth, including industrial infra- and supra-structures and complementary elements of the surroundings of airports. Unfortunately, it also generates undesirable environmental consequences outside of territories for which airport managers are legally responsible. Too much noise from air traffic is a specific discomfort and in many cases it has lead to the delineation of areas of restricted usage (ARU), i.e., geographically (spatially) and legally earmarked protection areas for zones exposed to such discomfort, in which the until now applied technical, technological, and organisational solutions have not produced expected standards of the quality of acoustic environment. ARU safeguard the interests of airports and other users of these areas.
Dynamic development of air transport in Poland, enhanced air mobility of society, extension of zones neighbouring the airports and increasing acoustic burden justify interest in these issues. The paper focuses on an airport as a stimulator of social and economic activities, the source of environmental conflicts, and basis for regulating their restrictions on the example of Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport. Methodologically, the paper is based on original, systematic and explicit direct observations over a longterm plus desk research of documentation and literature in the matter in question.