Methodology for Assessing Tradeoffs between Operational and Environmental Performance in the National Airspace System

Given the growing interest in addressing aviation-related environmental challenges, environmental impacts need to be assessed along with operational performance for any large-scale proposed change to the air transportation system. Existing tools can evaluate operational and environmental performance separately, but do not adequately address tradeoffs between different goals. This work presents an integration approach for bridging the gap between system-wide operational performance tools and environmental models. The proposed methods are tested by bringing together the systemwideModeler developed at the MITRE Corporation and the Aviation Environmental Design Tool being developed by the United States Federal Aviation Administration. An illustrative analysis demonstrates the methods presented.