This study projects the long-term health and economic costs of aircraft noise generated by the NextGen automated flight system, focusing on communities near Baltimore Washington International Airport. Using a mathematical simulation model, researchers estimated the impact of noise exposure on cardiovascular disease, anxiety, annoyance, and low birth weight over periods of 10, 20, and 30 years. The findings are intended to inform noise mitigation policies and provide a clearer picture of the public health consequences of modern air traffic management systems.Open full document
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This study projects the long-term health and economic burden of aircraft noise associated with the NextGen automated flight system at Baltimore Washington International (BWI) Thurgood Marshall Airport. Using a probabilistic Markov model with Monte Carlo simulation, the authors model impacts on four health endpoints: annoyance, cardiovascular disease, anxiety, and low birth weight. The model compares the post-NextGen status quo against a pre-NextGen counterfactual over time horizons of 10, 20, and 30 years.