People who live near the Region of Waterloo International Airport know it can get noisy there and that intrigued a group of third-year geography and aviation students at the University of Waterloo.
As pilots, Matthew Toy, Chase Cardoza, Nikith Challa and Isabelle Mazzoco know planes can get loud and wanted to look into just how much noise pollution comes from the planes taking off and landing at the airport and how that impacts people in the surrounding community.
“As pilots we like the sound of planes. We always look up and try to figure out what plane it is, but we know a lot of people aren’t pilots and they might not enjoy the sound of planes as much as we do,” Toy told CBC News.
“We wanted to look at how our operations affect everyone else in the region.”
More than 445,000 passengers travelled through the airport in 2023, which is an 18 per cent increase from the year before according to the region.
Using a special program called geographic information system (GIS) and public online information from the Government of Canada and the region, the group was able to calculate how much sound affects communities in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge.
