Abstract

Aircraft noise pollution is a significant concern for urban areas near large airports. This research focuses on the New Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) and attempts to model the noise impact of the aircraft and the noise-mitigating measures of the operational strategies. For the generation of Day–Night Average Sound Level (DNL) and Weighted Equivalent Continuous Perceived Noise Level (WECPNL) contours, a computational framework based on MATLAB and incorporating the Integrated Noise Model (INM) was created. Secondary sources were relied upon to provide input data, such as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA, 2022) for operational data, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA, 2019) for acoustic parameters, the India Meteorological Department (IMD, 2021) for meteorological data, and the WorldPop and the Indian Census for demographic data. Outputs of the model were checked using measurements from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The findings indicate that noise impact is not uniform, as it is concentrated along extended contours oriented with runway 11/29, associated with the direction of aircraft arrivals and departures. Extending as far as 12 kilometres from the airport, the 55 dB(A) contour impacted about 164,000 residents. At the same time, WECPNL contours had an even larger coverage due to nighttime sensitivity. Validation showed a close match with the CPCB data, deviating by no more than 2 dB. Scenario testing showed a near 23-per-cent reduction in exposure above 65 dB(A) due to the NADP1 procedures; however, traffic redistribution showed no overall improvement. The exposure increase in the 20 per cent traffic growth scenario was close to 40 per cent, extending the population count to over 220,000. Taken together, this analysis underscores the importance of noise-sensitive planning, including tighter restrictions on nighttime operations, adoption of standard abatement procedures, and incorporating noise contours into urban land-use planning to prevent chronic health and social impacts in the future.