Yamato City Government Policy of Dealing with the Urban Aircraft Noise Problem Caused by the U.S. Military Air Base

摘要

The U.S. Navel air base Atsugi hosts many U.S. carrier-borne aircrafts with noises thatreach over 100dB. The runway is adjacent to Yamato city, an urban area near metropolitanTokyo. Yamato city has an extremely high population density comparable to New YorkCity. The Japanese government says approximately 2,400,000 (which includes 220,000citizens of Yamato city) suffer from the noise generated by these aircrafts. This situationhas continued for about 35 years with more than 29,000 complaint calls recorded. For thecity government there are some difficulties finding a solution. Firstly, information onflights is unavailable as it’s a U.S. military base that’s hosting the U.S. naval aircrafts.Secondly, the base is offered to the U.S. by the Japanese government under the Japan-U.S.Security Treaty, so it is an ongoing nation-to-nation problem. So far the city governmenthas taken various steps to try to resolve the issue, such as observing flights, gathering datafrom the noise and simulating noise contour using Ldn, which is widely used in the U.S. Thecity government also studies relations between noise and complaints. It visits and learnsabout the situation in the U.S. and requests / makes proposals on how to reduce the noiselevels such as changing flight patterns or transition of flights to other airfields. To conclude,in the 24 years I have worked as Assistant Director of Base relations, I have noticed asignificant improvement in the situation. It is an ongoing problem that still requirescontinued efforts.