The construction and operation of a civil airport will inevitably destroy the biodiversity and ecosystem components. Especially when located on bird migration routes, the emergence of a civil airport will have a large impact on birds, resulting in immeasurable ecological loss. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out an evaluation of the ecological impact on birds at the airport site selection stage for the sustainable development of humans and the nature. Geographically, Dalian, China, is an important site in the bird migration routes in northeast Asia, and the National Conservation Area of Snake Island and Laotieshan Mountain located in the south of Dalian has been included in the Man and Biosphere Programme (MBP) network as a biosphere reserve. Therefore, the expansion plan of a new civil airport in this region is a major challenge to the bird ecology. Here, using the detailed investigation data about migratory birds in Dalian, we evaluate the impact of different site schemes on the bird ecology by an expert-based approach and choose the more favourable one for bird ecological environments. The innovative attempt to a civil airport site selection based on the bird ecological conservation presented in this paper is of great significance for improving airport site planning and exploring the sustainable development of airports and the bird ecology around the world.
