Aircraft noise on park soundscape from an airport located inside a national park

摘要

The Jackson Hole Airport, which is located inside Grand Teton National Park, is the only airport located in a unit of the National Park System that provides scheduled commercial air carrier service. An environmental impact statement was prepared for the extension of a use agreement allowing the Jackson Hole Airport to operate in Grand Teton National Park. Parsons was contracted to develop a set of noise contours to address the aircraft noise at the surrounding areas, which assisted the National Park Service in describing the effects of the airport related noise on the park at present and in the future. Because the airport is inside the national park, the National Park Service required using various noise metrics to address potential effects on the park’s natural soundscape. Therefore, in addition to calculating Lmax and Ldn, Integrated Noise Model was used to develop audibility contours for the entire national park area. The audibility contours for percent of time audible and percent of time above 60 dBA were also developed.