Large hub airports have become key growth drivers in their parent cities. In the U.S. regulatory backdrop, this growth now requires governmental and planning organizations to insert urban planning mechanisms into airport planning models. Airports existence within a business driven and technical world means that their planning focus isn’t necessarily towards an
intelligent interface with surrounding urban infrastructure. Conversely, the positive economic impacts produced by the business driven benefits of airports; from the mass movement of people and goods; gives a huge boost to the metropolis. This has made airports central to the future urban landscape.
Aerotropolis theory has presented a unique spatial design for this cityscape; which begins with the nature and volume of aeronautical travel at the airport and its status as a major
international and regional hub. It must exhibit both intermediacy and centrality, which makes it the main connection node for its parent city and region to the global economy. This locational efficiency causes natural economic agglomeration, and the ancillary service industries that surround its core business structure begin to define the airport city. As the airport city grows, it will create activity clusters, follow transportation corridors, and attract secondary economic interests. This growth should no longer be haphazard, and the potential to utilize the airport’s economic magnetism can lead to a new airport city urban classification based on neo-traditional growth concepts. Sustainability and connectivity can be achieved with the infusion of urban planning methods. Land parcels around airport should not necessarily be simply relegated to only to industrial uses. The metropolis and the airport city should not grow with independent plans.
Four planning interface domains are both interdependent and integral to the melding of the airport with its surrounding municipalities: economic development, land use, transportation infrastructure, and inter-governmental relationships.
1- Economic Development: As quantified in this paper’s economic impact analysis of the DFW and MEM airport profiles, understanding the variance and magnitude of both direct and indirect impacts is important for travel demand models. Direct employment from on-site sources is more easily quantified, but the indirect employment patterns from spontaneous market driven growth attached to these businesses must also be estimated. Furthermore, understanding the induced financial and social economic impacts of the airport will ensure increased regional opportunities and benefits.
2- Land Use: Fundamental to integrated land use compatibility with the airport’s owned land and its controlled land interests in the surrounding communities, is the use of planning strategies which incorporate airport city mixed-uses and smart growth principles. Cargo based airport hubs should site large freight and distribution complexes away from adjacent residential properties, if they exist. They should also separate access points from passengers and consolidate passenger ops into separate terminals. They can then commercialize internally appropriately. The industrial land uses around large cargo hubs can cause blight and traffic congestion. Regional transportation planners must identify development trends, existing land use patterns, land
characteristics, human and natural characteristics, and desired future uses. Land use conflicts are generally more pronounced around cargo centric portions of airports.Airport master planning is sometimes not attentive enough to external land use impacts other than those that are geared towards expanded non-aeronautical revenue. This revenue is necessary to the airport’s survival, but it is not going to be diminished by utilizing urban planning methods.
3- Infrastructure: Airport related ground travel demand is subject to differing degrees of user utility and demand. Many studies show that mode choice variables for airport travel differ from city travel in regards to time versus distance and passenger vs. airport employee (Massida et al., 2013). Regional and local transportation planners must model these demands differently (Coogan, 2008, Derudder, 2010). This is still an ongoing area of research, and transit agencies often do not consider airport connections as cost efficient for smaller hub airports. Large hub airports must find efficient ways to improve LOS standards for passenger ground transportation, and sustainable reliable means to transport their large employee bases. Cargo airports must work with local and regional planning entities to de-conflict freight traffic. They must be key
stakeholders in the design of regional freight infrastructure plans. Infrastructure is fundamental for airport efficiency and development capacity, and therefore connected to its dominance as a regional economic engine. It must be interfaced with regional transportation plans to ensure that regional connections are not made at the expense of local connectivity (Graham & Marvin, 2001).
4- Inter-governmental relationships: DFW and MEM exist within complex inter- governmental frameworks. This is true of all U.S. airports, which exist in a decentralized
landside framework, and a de-regulated air routing and carrier structure. Large airports are pulled in two directions, competing for global relevance, and seeking non-aeronautical revenues on their landsides to decrease the costs to important air carriers. This has entered them into the often complex realm of the urban planner, who must deal with multiple municipalities, jurisdictions, groups, interests, agencies etc… In the last twenty years, many large airports have diversified and expanded their management departments to include landside-focused units for real-estate acquisition and landside project development. Recently, the large hubs have begun to expand
beyond the airport cities immediately on their edges, and exerted influence farther away,
sometimes as much as 50km (Kasarda, 2010). Airports are better positioned to understand issues involving their direct control, but not externalities they cause throughout the region. Regions and cities, like Dallas/Ft Worth and Memphis, have recognized the need for unified planning. Their efforts towards that end have been rightly shaped by their unique intergovernmental structures. Dallas/Ft. Worth has embraced a unification of plan elements, but kept their plans separate. Memphis has taken an approach of creating a singular Airport City Master Plan, in the process being very attentive of its reactions to existing plans and policies. Each airport and city must decide on the best way to improve interdependent planning, for an aerotropolis model that centered around transportation infrastructure induced economic development. Regional planners and airport planners should lead the way towards the development of the new aerotropolis urban plan. Stevens notes a few of the interdependent factors that must be recognized by policy makers and planners from both entities (figure 34).
This paper’s purpose was two-fold:
1- To thoroughly review the background, economic drivers, theory and spatial form of the aerotropolis concept and create a summary of important planning elements.
2- To comparatively analyze two large hub airports, one passenger centric, and one cargo centric; in order to gain insight from how regional and airport planners are coping with the as yet fully defined airport city urban form.
It is hoped that some of the policy recommendations are helpful. It is of greater hope that this paper’s multi-faceted examination will contribute to the establishment of a more refined planning theory that encapsulates contemporary airport growth. This paper only examined the region-airport interface, and not the multitude of local-airport and other interfaces that exist. The aerotropolis model is still a relatively new concept that requires refinement, research and
application. Hopefully this master’s paper will provide a consolidated source of information and contribute to the existing body of research, to the ultimate end of helping planners gain insight into some of the relevant airport city planning factors and stimulate further future research on the topic.
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