Measuring Quality of Life in Communities Surrounding Airports (2020)

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40 Conclusion Airports are a part of the communities they serve. Acting as employers, centers of commerce, and transportation hubs, airports connect their communities to the world outside of their immediate environment. Because of their large role, airports also impact the QOL of surround­ ing neighborhoods and nearby cities in positive and negative ways. In addition, airports are themselves affected by larger trends in their communities—such as development patterns in neighboring cities—over which they may have little to no control. For these reasons, the airport will benefit from considering the QOL of surrounding communities. 6.1 Recommended Further Research This guidebook provides a methodology and a progressive, step­by­step approach for conducting a QOL assessment. As described in Chapter 3 and further in Appendix C: Existing Quality of Life Resources, the methodology was validated with three partner air­ ports through virtual meetings and in­person workshops with both internal (i.e., airport) stakeholders and community representatives. However, the scope of this research did not include the completion of either a complete or a streamlined QOL assessment for an airport. While the guidebook provides instructions for how an airport can implement the assessment methodology, the industry would benefit from information gathered during a real­world pilot study of a QOL assessment. Therefore, the research team recommends that ACRP consider a subsequent project to implement a full QOL assessment and a streamlined mini assessment at two airports. Ideally, the airports selected would differ in size and geographic location. • The full QOL Assessment Pilot Study would document a volunteer airport’s implementation of the methodology from Step 1 through Step 5. The assessment would include all 100 indi­ cators across the six QOL categories. The airport would work through the steps to initiate a QOL dialogue; build an internal stakeholder group; gather quantitative data; engage external stakeholder organizations; identify the study area; administer the survey; consider supple­ mental metrics, if necessary; and create the quadrant score charts to depict the results. The research should include the development of a case study at the conclusion of the assessment to provide the airport industry with lessons learned and any resulting modifications made to improve the methodology. • The streamlined mini QOL Assessment Pilot Study would follow the same approach but with fewer indicators selected. The airport would work with the selected research team to identify a subset of the 100 indicators to investigate, selecting several from each of the six categories. The results of the streamlined assessment should also be developed into a case study. C H A P T E R 6

Conclusion 41 Both case studies would be published and added to the guidebook as an addendum or additional chapter after publication. The case studies would provide additional real­world information to airports on how to plan, execute, evaluate, and improve the QOL assessment process. Feedback from community members could be obtained with regard to the efficacy of the communication efforts.