Airport site selection modelling by using geographical information systems

u ABSTRACT Doctorate Thesis AIRPORT SITE SELECTION MODELLING BY USING GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS HAKAN OKTAL Anadolu University Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences Civil Aviation Program Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Can AYDAY 1998, Page 119 Airports are one of the most significant elements for air transportation. Today, the portion of air transportation in the transportation sector, is gradually increasing so the importance of airports and investments made in airports are also increasing. Determining a suitable site for the airport is the most important step, after deciding to establish an airport. Any mistakes occuring in the research of airport site selection, which is the most important step in airport master planning, may causr all the investments to be in correctly invested and the airport capacity could be below or above of the planned capacity. While selecting the airport site the fact that possible unexpected aspects could arise should be taken into consideration. It's also important that different sites but different conditions could be suitable. Airport site selection is a subjective study and it is possible that incorrect results could be obtained due to political interpretation. In this research it is aimed to make airport site selection process more objective by using numerical formulas with the help of Geographical Information Systems (GIS). With this research, a new model of airport site selection which can take the predictions for future unexpected aspects and obtain the necessary security for an airport site selection has been suggested. Keywords: Airport, Site Selection, Geographical Information Systems.