Challenges in the environmental licensing of aerodromes due to presence of waste management units within airport operation areas

Abstract

Fauna presence in aerodromes vicinity is a worldwide concern due to collision risk. In order to guarantee the safety of aviation operations, the Brazilian federal law imposes land use restrictions within the airport operation area (AOA), especially in relation to activities that attract wildlife such as dumps and landfills. In this paper, we sought to identify all landfills and other types of waste management units (WMU) within AOA’s in Rio Grande do Sul State (defined by Brazilian law as a 20 km buffer from the center of the aerodrome runway). For this purpose, we consulted the databases of competent authorities to identify the WMU and performed geoprocessing analyzes to locate them in relation to the aerodromes. Additionally, we searched for all the licensing process where a legal conflict has been detected by landfill presence within AOA’s in the State Environmental Agency database. Our results showed that 76% of the Rio Grande do Sul aerodromes have at least one landfill or waste management unit within their AOA. Moreover, we found that, until 2017, only 6 of the state’s 89 aerodromes operated according to the current environmental law (i.e. with valid operating license). Thus, we conclude that the occurrence of landfills and other types of waste management units within AOAs represents a huge challenge to government authorities over the next years, especially due to the need to adjust old aerodromes to the current environmental legislation.