OAK’s InsightFull Community Engagement
Yesterday’s approach to complaints management doesn’t meet today’s needs. What airports need is a solution that provides the public with answers to their question.
That’s exactly what the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport’s (OAK) Noise Office has achieved with their new InsightFull web portal.
The San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport noise mitigation efforts have evolved over the last 50 years in response to advancements in technology, changes in regulations, community feedback, and a commitment to environmental sustainability.
OAK has implemented a variety of noise abatement procedures over the years and has built robust data systems tracking procedure usage, complaints, and noise readings. Yet, the most in-depth information related to their community’s aircraft noise experience was not readily available to the public.
With InsightFull, OAK is able to provide their communities with robust, relevant information to foster better communication and leads to more effective noise mitigation. But what did it take to get to where they are today?
From the Ground Up
The initial inception of InsightFull starts with defining what it’s purpose will be. Are we aiming to provide a wide range of information or directly answer common questions? What will InsightFull mean to the local community? Answering these questions will determine how to utilize InsightFull’s key functionalities.
Providing the Full Picture
Oakland’s goal for their InsightFull is to provide the noise office’s full story so as to provide more well-rounded information to affected communities. This journey would lead readers through a basic understanding of OAK’s aircraft operations, to a clear picture of what aircrafts affect each community, to then discover what mitigation measures the airport is taking to help their area, then finally what they themselves can do to be involved in aircraft noise mitigation to empower the reader to advocate for themselves.
Back to Basics
Information on aircraft operations and noise and how that relates to OAK is some of the most important content we needed to put on the site. This background information would be crucial for readers to understand the complexity of aircraft noise mitigation. Without it, the rest of the InsightFull story may be misunderstood or misinterpreted.
A good start to the foundational information is to start with a general overview of how aircraft operate at airports, whether it be general aviation or airliners or both. Besides the general overview on operations, for OAK we also wanted to identify: what does OAK do differently? And what about that might nearby communities need to know to understand how they are affected?
Location, Location, Location
Location-based information is the most relevant content for the reader. By focusing on location-specific topics, we could provide targeted information that cuts through the noise and delivers content directly to those who are most likely to benefit from it. This efficiency saves time and resources for both the airport and the community.
To identify our target audiences, one of the first things we needed to do was identify Oakland’s general known noise issues and, for OAK, there was 6. From there, we looked at a map of the surrounding area covered within the limits of InsightFull and assigned those known issues to general areas within the boundary. There are also two major international airports nearby, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and San Jose International Airport (SJC), and we made sure to acknowledge the areas that were mainly impacted by either of the two other major airports. Anything leftover beyond that was established as areas not majorly affected by aircraft traffic out of any of the major nearby airports. This all set the stage for where we would place our InsightFull location zones in ANOMS Advanced. These zones ultimately determine what content will show on InsightFull once a person provides their location into the site.
- Not familiar with ANOMS Advanced?
ANOMS Advanced provides airport teams with the broadest toolset capabilities available. Access deep and rich data sets on airport noise and powerful operational insights. It offers sophisticated and flexible workflows with the ability to match complex monitoring and reporting, community engagement requirements.
We decided to make the content structured the same way in InsightFull across the locations. Each location has a description of what types of flights overfly that area. This can range from circuit training flights out of OAK, to being overflown by multiple operation types from OAK and/or the major airports nearby. This content specifically stays high-level so that it’s clear what flights usually affect a person’s area. In this, we also called out what flights affect them during unusual airport flow conditions as well.
For each location, we also include information on what mitigation measures are in place to help their known noise issues. OAK has many very technical initiative programs in place so having this content based on location allows us to narrow down only to the relevant initiatives for the reader to minimize their confusion.
Empowering Community Involvement
Sometimes there is a fear around asking for community members to participate in aircraft noise mitigation. What would be the benefit of asking someone to complain? But by not asking, community members may just do it themselves and without the full understanding of the situation. By providing the background knowledge and the resources to do more, we create more opportunities to work together and create constructive solutions rather than be bombarded by unrealistic demands.
OAK explored how they wanted to direct their community’s engagement and provided multiple resources to do so. They also added extra learning topics so that their community could dive into deeper topics on aircraft noise and operations if they choose to. Lastly, they wanted direct feedback on InsightFull so that they could further tailor its content to the community’s interests, so they included an InsightFull survey to offer an easy solution for the community to be engaged.
It Takes a Village
It takes working together with many different stakeholders to arrive at a well-rounded community portal. Working with multiple stakeholders is essential for promoting collaboration, driving innovation, managing risks, and ultimately achieving a successful InsightFull portal.
InsightFull is not a copy-and-paste solution for each airport. We spend large efforts working together with Noise Offices and many other stakeholders to succeed in the creation of InsightFull.
We Work Together
OAK had its own unique set of challenges to address in creating their InsightFull that required us to embrace collaboration and explore how to meet the community’s needs. We worked very closely together brainstorming content and going back and forth on improvements to nudge the site towards perfection. With Envirosuite, OAK was able to explore what messages to convey to whom, coordinate the logistics of how to tell the story in the best way for OAK’s community to benefit from, and incorporate all of the information onto the InsightFull portal.
Incorporating Industry Expertise
Incorporating various expertise into the design process allows you to create an InsightFull website that effectively communicates your message and engages users. Many hands were involved in creating and reviewing OAK’s InsightFull site to ensure functionality and content were all up to standards. From consulting with OAK’s contracted marketing firm to ensure brand standards and ADA compliance were met, to coordinating IT to make the site live, OAK’s InsightFull wouldn’t be where it is today without the collaboration and assistance of various industry experts.
Community Buy-In
Involving the community in decision-making processes and actively seeking their input and participation helps projects to achieve better outcomes and make a positive impact on the communities they serve. OAK involved members of their community noise forum, which includes both elected officials and citizen representatives from cities surrounding OAK, in the review process of their InsightFull. Involving community representatives created the opportunity to gain valuable insights into how effectively InsightFull was meeting local needs, preferences, and priorities and we were able to implement valuable feedback before the final launch of the site.
And it doesn’t stop there. OAK sees the value in fostering further collaboration with their community. OAK includes a survey within InsightFull to involve the community in identifying future growth opportunities for InsightFull to ensure InsightFull continues to grow to fit the needs of their community. This helps to build trust and credibility and fosters positive relationships and goodwill within the community.
What Does the Future Hold?
As the impacts and priorities of the airport and affected communities change, InsightFull changes with them. It’s easy to discontinue, add, and update content on InsightFull to stay relevant with the latest issues your community is facing. InsightFull is meant to continue growing with the needs of the noise office to always stay ahead of new concerns and developments related to your community. OAK will continue to be updated with new content and features that provide an innovative, relevant, and Insightfull experience to their communities.
Key Takeaways
- FutureThinking
InsightFull is a forward-looking solution designed to adapt and grow with the evolving needs of the airport and its surrounding communities, ensuring ongoing relevance and innovation.
- TransformativeApproach
By leveraging advanced technology and comprehensive data, InsightFull transforms how noise complaints are managed, providing transparent and accessible information to the public.
- EvolvingProcess
- CollaborativeDevelopment
- StrongPartnerships
