A data-driven, simple and universal wildlife risk assessment
Maxime Allard
Director, Science and R&D
Falcon Environmental Inc.
2131 chemin Saint-Louis
Saint-Lazare, Quebec, Canada J7T 1Y
1 (514) 212-6297
maxime@falconenvironmental.com
Abstract: For more than a decade, FALCON as shared with the wildlife management community a proven risk assessment process that can be used by any size airports, which over 100 of them have now adopted. Based on Safety Management System processes, it assesses the risk by evaluating the likelihood and severity of wildlife strikes scenarios. That makes it so flexible that a very basic set of data can be used, for any size airports. This allows small airports with limited resources to conduct a basic science-based risk assessment, but also allow busier airports to assess their risk for different time of the year, day/night or even specific airfield areas. The risk assessment can even be updated in real-time using field data allowing monitoring changes in the risk. Last year this methodology has been internationally recognized by the industry since it is now part of the latest edition of the ACI Wildlife Management Handbook. That does not mean it can’t be improved! This presentation is not about describing the methodology, but about the possible integration of historical strike data and related challenges. We will see that their addition can sometimes be beneficial but, in other cases, non-relevant because of the additional complexity or the lack of quality or relevant data to assess wildlife risk.
Maxime Allard
Maxime Allard holds a master’s degree in biology from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where he studied forest ecology and bird communities associated with mature forests. He started working for FALCON as a Wildlife control officer in 2006. Since 2022, as the Director of Science and R&D, he and his science team have tackled specific wildlife issues airports have been facing, either in Canada and abroad. He drafted over 100 airport wildlife programs. His main strength is about using data-driven and advanced statistical analysis to support operational changes to airport wildlife programs.