Wildlife in Airport Environments: Chapter 13 Radar Technology to Monitor Hazardous Birds at Airports

Authors

Sidney A. Gauthreaux Jr., Clemson UniversityFollow
Paige M. Schmidt, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2013

Citation

From Wildlife in Airport Environments: Preventing Animal-Aircraft Collisions through Science-Based Management, ed. T.L. DeVault, B.F. Blackwell, & J.L. Belant (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013).

Comments

U.S. government work.

Abstract

Bird strikes are the most common wildlife hazard to aviation safety (Dolbeer et ale 2000). Advances in habitat management at airports through the elimination and reduction of attractants, in combination with hazing and lethal control, have reduced avian hazards < 152 m (500 feet) above ground level. Bird strikes above this altitude, however, are beyond the limits of traditional wildlife control techniques (Dolbeer 2011). Traditional avian survey methods used to monitor birds at airports (Cleary and Dolbeer 2005; Chapter 14) often fail to provide essential information on local bird activity and migration at higher altitudes, hazardous bird use of attractants near airports, and bird activity at night-information that could be provided by the strategic use of radar technology at and near airports (Dolbeer 2006).