Abstract: The current National Airspace System (NAS) is reaching capacity due to increased air traffic, and is based on outdated pre-tactical planning. This study proposes a more dynamic airspace configuration (DAC) approach that could increase throughput and accommodate fluctuating traffic, ideal for emergencies. The proposed approach constructs the airspace as a constraints-embedded graph, compresses its dimensions, and applies a spectral clustering-enabled adaptive algorithm to generate collaborative airport groups and evenly distribute workloads among them. Under various traffic conditions, the results of the experiments demonstrate a 50% reduction in workload imbalances. This research could ultimately form the basis for a recommendation system for optimized airspace configuration. Code available at https://github.com/KeFenge2022/GraphDAC.

Dr. Dahai Liu is a currently a professor with the School of Graduate Studies in the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Dr. Liu has extensive experience in the areas of Systems Engineering, Modeling and Simulation, Machine Learning and Human Factors Engineering. He has been serving as Aviation Research Coordinator for the DOT Tier 1 UTC – the Center for Advanced Transportations Mobility, and currently serves as the editor in chief for the Journal of Aviation/Aviation Education and Research, and editorial board member for the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics and Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics for Manufacturing and Service Industries. Dr. Liu has more than 120 publications, including peer review journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and technical reports.  He is the author of one textbook and co-author of an edited book. His research has been funded by FAA, NASA, ONR and DOT. Dr. Dahai Liu earned his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Management Information Systems in 1993, Master of Engineering in 1996, both from Tsinghua University, Beijing China. He earned a Ph.D. in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, in 2002. He is a senior member of the Institute of Industrial Engineer and senior member of the IEEE.