Informing Metropolitan Noise Mitigation for Urban Air Mobility Operations

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) represents a promising new frontier in on-demand transportation; however, concerns over its potential contribution to metropolitan noise pollution are increasingly understated. Aircraft noise and the associated annoyance have been linked to health risks, such as hearing loss and heightened anxiety in those who face high exposure. Additionally, the economic costs of noise mitigation from aviation are largely underexplored. This paper aims to highlight the economic relationship between proposed UAM operations and land use through a novel cost model. This model identifies a new constraint that can better inform how to minimize the initial cost necessary to enable UAM operations. This is achieved through the simulation of hourly and twice-hourly electric vertical takeoff and landing (EVTOL) aircraft operations between theorized vertiports along direct flight paths in the Los Angeles and Dallas Fort Worth area. Findings suggest that initial and mid-term UAM operations would not have a large impact on sensitive structures and residences based on the existing noise guidelines threshold, 65 dBA $L_{dn}$. However, for noise levels at a slightly lower threshold of 55 dBA+, significantly more communities would be impacted by increased levels of aviation noise, which could hinder public acceptance for UAM EVTOL operations.