Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Aviation has become an integral component of a modern transportation system. The economic and social benefits of flight are numerous and extensive. Increasing concern about the negative environmental and social costs of aviation has begun to question projected growth of the industry. Sustainable development has become an accepted principle of development in both government policy and business. Aviation development involves the complex interaction of a wide network of stakeholders, and the resultant perceived socio-economic and environmental impacts. This complex interaction forms the basis of this thesis. \n \nThe development of UK aviation is concerned with not just the development of new infrastructure and technology, but also the utilisation of existing infrastructure and technology. Future development could be by any number of alternative scenarios. However, which future scenario is superior to others? And, how should this comparison be assessed? \n \nSustainable development evolved as a multi-disciplinary concept and this thesis draws from a wide variety of disciplines to explore the phenomenon. The stakeholder research tradition is utilised to develop a participatory stakeholder-based methodology to identify and measure the relevant impacts of sustainable development. This new ‘stakeholder-sustainable development framework’ can analyse and evaluate the current system and inform the selection and integration of assessment techniques, and the rationale behind their selection. \n \nThis methodology is applied to UK aviation to identify perceived impacts and explore epistemological interpretations of sustainable development. Through semi-structured interviews, participants are invited to share the perceived impacts and their understanding of sustainable development in relation to aviation. Methods of assessment, for the identified impact of noise, are reviewed and one applied. \n \nThe research proposes a network of stakeholder actors key to the future development of aviation in the UK, and whose needs should be considered. The make-up of stakeholder representation at the airport level is relatively consistent at different airport scales. \n
Author: Andrew Timmis
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1765946448