Our Webinars – UECNA.EU

You can watch recordings of the webinars with subtitles in your own language.
At the bottom right of the video you will find the following buttons:

With the left button you turn the subtitles on and off.
With the settings button next to it you can choose the language: automatically use English or – when you click on it – use a language of your choice.
The text is not perfect but certainly acceptable to follow the webinar.

Webinar No 17: Noise & Health

On June 24, 2024, dr Omar Hahad, one of Europe’s leading specialists on the effects of environmental pollution on human health, spoke on Noise & Health.

Dr. Omar Hahad is a stress researcher at the Center for Cardiology at the University Medical Center Mainz and at the Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research in Mainz.

You can find here the video of the webinar as well as the presentation of dr. Hahad.

Webinar No 16: International Panel Discussion on Metrics

Do we get more disturbed by aircraft noise than the official figures show? Is there a right metric to measure noise annoyance from aircraft?

The way aircraft noise is measured is complex. Metrics are ways of measuring noise. Different metrics measure different things. We outline the key metrics used below. Decibels indicates how loud a noise is. All noise, not just aircraft noise, is measured in decibels. You will also come across the phrase ‘noise contours’. As we explain below, a contour indicates the level of noise in a certain area.

We explained more in the 3 June 2024 webinar. In brief, the most common metrics are:

The LAeq Metric
The number of aircraft passing over an area during a 16 hour day is counted. The noise of each plane is measured in decibels (db). The noise is then averaged out for the day. This is then turned into an annual average.

The Lden Metric
Lden averages the noise out over an 8 hour day, a 4 hour evening and an 8 hour night, with 5 and 10 decibels added to the evening and night figures respectively to account for generally lower background levels at those times. Used by The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Commission, as they believe it is more meaningful than LAeq. Lnight averages the noise only during the night period and is also used by WHO.

The DNL Metric
The DNL Metric averages the noise over a 24-hour period but adds 10 decibels of the night period to allow for the lower background noise levels, expressed as the noise level for the average day of the year on the basis of annual aircraft operations. This is used in America and some other countries.

The ‘N’ Metric
This measures the number of planes going over a house which are above a given decibel level. So, for example, N60 would show the number of planes over 60 decibels which fly over a home during a given period.

What is a noise contour?
Most airports produce noise contours. They usually are annual contours. They show the level of aircraft noise in an area averaged out over a year. So, for example, 65dbLAeq contour indicates the area when the noise averages out at 65 decibels or more over the course of the year.

What is a safe level of annoyance?
The World Health Organisation says that the daytime safe level for aircraft is 45Lden and at night 40Lnight. The European Union says that for most people noise annoyance starts at 55Lden. America puts it much higher at 65DNL. The UK goes lower: 51LAeq.

Low Frequency Noise
There is an argument that none of the metrics used measure the low-frequency noise from aircraft. Low frequency noise is a different type of noise. There is a lot of low frequency noise in, for example, a sound system. As well has hearing it the body can ‘feel’ it. Aircraft noise also has a lot of low frequency. There are good arguments to say that all the above metrics don’t fully capture the low-frequency noise because they use ‘A’ weighting. ‘C, ‘D’ or ‘Z’ weighting are a lot better at capturing low-frequency noise. In 1999 the World Health Organisation acknowledged the importance of low frequency noise:

Special attention should also be given to: noise sources in an environment with low background sound levels; combinations of noise and vibrations; and to noises with low-frequency components. Guidelines for Community Noise, Exec Summary 3.10 – World Health Organisation [WHO]

Video link to the webinar

Presentation of Giulio Marsigli

Presentation of Elaine Miller

Presentation of Sean Foley

Webinar No 15: Reducing the number of flights with the Balanced Approach

March 4, 2024

To reduce air noise pollution from Schiphol Airport the number of flights has to go down. The European Union requires that the so called Balanced Approach procedure must be used when an EU member state wishes to implement noise-related operating restrictions on an airport with more than 50,000 aircraft movements per year.

Both the Dutch Government and citizens want to reduce flights at Schiphol Airport. In this webinar they explain how they are working together to put pressure on the European Union. If they succeed, it could provide a model to be used at other airports.

Speakers are Matt Poelmans as residents’ representative and Helen Groot from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management explained what problems you can encounter if you follow the prescribed Balanced Approach procedure.

Video of the webinar

Webinar No 14 on the potential of rail to replace short-haul flights

How to get people take the train instead of an aircraft? UECNA is looking for support for measures to reduce aircraft noise at European airports. These measures include significant investment in rail alternatives.

Presentation by John Stewart, President of UECNA

Here you can look back the webinar.

And here are the slides, including some comments during the webinar.

Webinar No 13 on a system to allow residents to measure plane noise & track flight paths

EANS is a pure form of citizen science is developed by Frankfurt residents, and is now used by communities at over 50 airports worldwide. An example:

The recording of this webinar
The presentation slides
The chat during the webinar

Webinar No 12 on External cost of aircraft noise

Presented by two experts from the renowned Dutch consultancy, CE Delft, Arno Schroten is an expert on the monetization of the environmental impacts of transport and a lead author of the EU handbook on the external costs of transport. Stefan Grebe is the team leader on Transport Economics at CE Delft. The slides are available here : Webinar – Monetary costs of aviation noise

The chat is here : GMT20230525-153310_RecordingnewChat

Webinar No 11 on Ultra-fine particles from aircraft

Debi Wagner, longtime activist at Seatle-Tacoma International Airport and specialist on the topic, outlined community concerns. The slides from her presentation are here : UECNA UFP presentation

The chat is here : 20230306 Chat discussion webinar on ultrafine particles

The transcript of the webinar is here (Thank you Larry Edwards) : Airport Ultra-fine Particles – Webinar for UECNA by Debi Wagner, (TRANSCRIPT) 6 Mar 2023

Webinar No 10 on Caps on flights at Airports

A cap on the number flights allowed to use an airport – a good idea?

UECNA vice chair John Stewart talked about his experiences at Heathrow and London City Airport, both of which have a cap.

You can find here the video registration of this webinar here. And here are the slides.

Webinar No 9 on Air Taxis & Delivery Drones

Especially if you’re not interested in the topic, you should check it out. Because if you ignore it now, you shouldn’t complain later about the inconvenience it will cause…

UECNA President Dominique Lazarski, an international speaker on the topic, outlined their impact on towns & cities.

After her presentation there was plenty of room for questions & discussion.

We already published some information under Key Issues > Noise and Health > UECNA Briefing on Drones and Air Taxis.

Here you find the recording of the webinar.

Webinar No 8 on Strengthening your position on aviation towards your government

Wouter Looman spoke, followed by questions and discussion.

Here you find a recording of the meeting and a link to the slides of the presentation.

Webinar No 7 on Can new aircraft be designed to cut emissions and noise?

Finlay Asher spoke, followed by questions and discussion.

Here you find a recording of the meeting and a link to the slides of the presentation.

Webinar No 6 on Noise Metrics

Our Webinar on Noise Metrics was on March 22nd 2022. It looked at the best ways to measure aircraft noise so that it reflects the way communities hear it. Our two speakers were Nicole Porter, a leading noise expert from the UK, and Elaine Miller, a campaigning from America.

Followed by questions and discussion.

Here you’ll find the presentations of the speakers:

Noise metrics by Nicole Porter
Believe What You Hear by Elaine Miller

Webinar No 5 on Best Practices for Dealing with Airport Communities

Our first webinar in 2022 was on February 3rd.

In this webinar, we showed some of the best practices for dealing with airport communities, in the hopes that others can learn from them. We had two people telling their story:

Professor Paul Hooper, Manchester Metropolitan University
Manfred Peter, chair of the coalition of community groups around Vienna Airport

Followed by questions and discussion.

Here is the link to the video of the meeting on YouTube.
And the presentation of Manfred Peter in pdf.

Webinar No 4 on Successful Campaigning

At our general meeting on December 11, 2021, we had a webinar about organizing a successful campaign.

There were presentations by two experienced campaigners:

Florian Sperk, who led the campaign which stopped a new runway at Munich Airport,
John Stewart, who played a central role in defeating plans for a third runway at Heathrow.

They outlined basic campaign principles and techniques which can be used not only in fighting new runways but also in our campaigning on flight path changes, night flights and much more.

Their presentations were followed by a general discussion of the techniques of successful campaigning: the need for a strategy; the challenges of bringing together a wide range of people; the need to be focused; and the tactics which work best.

For those who could not attend, here is the recording of this webinar. And the presentations of Florian and John.

Webinar No 3 on Airspace Change and Performance Based Navigation

Our third webinar was on November 24, 2021.

Across the world airspace is being modernised. Many flight paths may change. And narrow, concentrated flight paths, known as PBN, are introduced. The webinar explored the impacts on local communities and asked what can be done to ensure communities can gain some benefits from the changes.

Ian Jopson was the lead speaker. He is well-known internationally for his work for the United Nations body, ICAO, on PBN (Perfoirmance Based Navigation) Routes and community engagement. Currently he is Head of Sustainable Operations at NATS (air traffic control in the UK).

John Stewart, who headed up HACAN, the community organisation which gives a voice to residents under the Heathrow flight paths, outlined the community engagement Heathrow Airport undertook.

For those who could not attend, here is the link to the recording of this webinar. And the links to the presentations of Ian Jopson en John Stewart.

Webinar No 2 on Noise Monitoring

Noise Monitoring was the second in a series of online seminars organized and took place on November 11. We welcomed lots of new participants from Europe, but also from North and South America! These webinars meet the need for expert information on many aspects of fighting aviation nuisances.

Martin Kessel described the European Aircraft Noise Services (EANS – eans.net).

Environmental acoustician Giulio Marsigli informed the participants about the work he has done with residents at Bologna airport.

Webinar No 1 on Night Flights

The first UECNA seminar on Night Flights on October 21 was a great success with participants from all over the world. This will lead to more intensive contacts between groups within and outside Europe.

You can download a written summary of the meeting here. We also made a recording of the meeting. And you can download the presentations:

An overview of night flight bans or restrictions at European airports.

UECNA presents annual statistics – including night flights – of some major airports in Europe on this page.