Human-wildlife conflict is affecting a number of aspects of society as a result of increased
competition for resources such as food and space. To address the complexity, management of
human wildlife conflict needs to be innovative to achieve a difficult but possible win-win
solution for both humans and wildlife. As an important form of human-wildlife conflict,
aircraft-wildlife collisions (AWCs), more commonly known as bird strikes, require even
greater imagination and innovation to solve.
AWCs have the potential to cause loss of life to humans, and annual losses in damages as a
result of such collisions runs in excess of US$ 3 billion per year to the aviation industry. Due
to lack of accurate reporting of AWCs in Namibia (and Africa as a whole) losses have been
impossible to quantify locally. In addition to direct damage, airlines, airports and individuals
have been litigated in Europe and the USA for indirect damages resulting from AWCs. A
number of studies have identified an increasing trend in AWCs globally as a result of higher
flight volumes and increases in risk bird populations.
Flight safety in Africa is of concern internationally, and AWCs are an important safety aspect
which need to be understood better. Very little empirical research on the extent or causes of
AWCs in Africa have been published. At Namibiaâs two major airports, Hosea Kutako
International and Eros (domestic), 128 AWC incidents were recorded between 2006 and
2010. Although none led to human injury or death, two major incidents lead to costs in excess
of N$ 20 million and N$ 1million respectively. Publications on AWC minimisation strategies
and techniques on the continent are limited to South Africa and Uganda. This is problematic,
as mitigation measures for AWCs in Africa are therefore mostly based on research in foreign
ecosystems; while we know that local knowledge of AWC factors, such as bird and mammal
population dynamics and climatic seasonality are critical to the success of AWC
management.
This study is the first scientific investigation into any aspect of AWCs in Namibia. It aims to
understand the relationship between ecosystem components and their effect on the risk of
aircraft-wildlife collisions occurring at Hosea Kutako and Eros airports. Monitoring of
ecosystem components such as insects and small mammals are useful to airport wildlife
management as they are relatively quick and inexpensive tools for determining ecosystem health and functioning and can indicate varying environmental contexts and responses. These
ecosystem components and others such as vegetation and avian communities were explored.
The study found that modelling the abovementioned ecosystem factors to predict the risk of
AWCs would be marginally accurate, but still useful in understanding the system, as well as
the effects of various management actions on that system. Systems modelling was found to
have the potential to map the complexity of influences on AWCs and make them
understandable to airport management in order to allow more informed decision making and
resourcing regarding the management of AWC risk.
The international obligation placed on airport staff to control wildlife hazards in the vicinity
of airports is often difficult to fulfil, especially at smaller airports or in countries with
inadequate resources and capacity. In addition to this, research into wildlife habitat, species
and their habits at airports has predominantly originated in Europe and North America, and
hence mitigation measures are most effective in these conditions, and less effective
elsewhere. Based on the context of its literature and empirical research, this study proposes a
toolkit which was designed to guide airports in Southern Africa to minimise risk of aircraftwildlife
collisions. It is based on the understanding of ecosystems in the vicinity of the two
airports on which this study was based, but also on the broader understanding of capacity and
resources available to many Southern African countries. It also considers the recommended
practices of ICAO, global best practice and promotes a multi-stakeholder management
approach.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-08192014-130619 |
| Date | 19 August 2014 |
| Creators | Hauptfleisch, Morgan Lindo |
| Contributors | Dr D Toerien, Dr NL Avenant |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-08192014-130619/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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