In accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Flight Plan, the Office of Environment and Energy is developing a comprehensive suite of software tools that will allow for thorough assessment of the environmental effects of aviation. The main goal of the effort is to develop a new, critically-needed capability to assess the interdependencies between aviation-related noise and emissions impacts and to evaluate associated costs. A central building block of this new suite of software tools is the Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT), which will integrate existing noise and emissions models with a new aircraft and engine analysis tool, referred to as the Environmental Design Space (EDS). To complete the suite of tools, AEDT and EDS will work together with an economic analysis capability, entitled the Aviation Environmental Portfolio Management Tool (APMT). This suite of tools will enable assessments of the global, regional, national, and airport-specific environmental impacts of aviation and associated economic costs and societal benefits. Specifically, the tool set will model aviation system technology changes, operational impacts of aviation noise and emissions policies, manufacturer and operator costs of noise and emission reduction, environmental and health related costs associated with noise and emission exposure, and broader societal macroeconomic effects.

Three workshops have been held to-date to gather public input to assist in the development of these tools. This fourth and final workshop is being held to present the results of the work completed to date.