The Innovative Model of Runway Sustainable Management on Smaller Regional Airports

Abstract

Airport runways are exposed to large traffic loads and other external factors which cause their transformation. Monitoring the state of the unevenness and determining the runway defectiveness is a complex procedure which includes fast and qualitative measurements of the execution of flatness, their evaluation and the determination of the level of runway defectiveness. For this purpose, an improved process of determining airport runway defectiveness is proposed, based on geodetic survey and the management information system prototype, which enables evaluating the results of the executed survey and suggesting the runway maintenance measures. A similar analysis of the considered data on the example of a smaller, regional airport in Maribor, Slovenia, was performed with the help of our own algorithm, which, on various platforms, enables the tabular and graphical display of surface irregularities. The algorithm prototype allows the automated monitoring and evaluating of the unevenness or runway states, determining their defectiveness and advising adequate action. With the help of the suggested method and developed information system prototypes, it is possible to confirm the demand for professionally adequate and on-time planning of necessary maintenance works, with which it is surely possible to prevent an eventual unexpected closing of the runway and related costs. The suggested method is also usable in evaluating the state of other traffic infrastructure.