An expert system to record and evaluate aircraft enviromental noise

Aircraft noise is often perceived by communities living close to airports as the most serious impact on the environment, thus affecting both working activities and night sleep; various EC directives have recently dealt with this important problem. The Italian Ministry for Environment has decided to start a serious project in this field, financing noise monitoring systems close the main airports and promoting actions aimed to reduce aircraft environmental noise. The Acoustic Laboratory of the University of Perugia has improved an expert system to record and evaluate aircraft noise; it is based on INM (Integrated Noise Model) simulation code and it is composed of various sheets concerning airport location and general data, runways characteristics, aicraft traffic data, acoustic zoning and mapping, climate and noise monitoring systems. The expert system contains a data-base which has satisfactorily been filled with data from the main italian airports and is therefore an useful tool both to verify the current situation and to simulate future scenarios