Integrate climate resilience considerations in airport development projects
The risks associated with a changing climate are diverse and pose a number of both subtle and dramatic impacts on airports. In some locations, increased precipitation will shut down runways and overwhelm stormwater systems. In other places, increases in temperature may damage runway pavements and aircraft equipment. Airports are coping with the “new normal” of increases in severe storms, prevalence of drought, and other extreme climate conditions. Given that 70% of airport delays are related to weather, airports are particularly vulnerable to increased disruption due to climate change, and are therefore increasingly considering resilience as it in airport projects and operations. Resilience includes effectively planning for, recovering from, and responding dynamically to hardship, change, or disasters with limited impact on airport operations. Resilience is about planning to meet rapidly changing conditions to prevent issues before they arise, being able to meet challenges effectively during events, and being able to recover effectively to prevent future disruptions. Airports not only provide critical access to the regions they serve during extreme events, but also serve as a lifeline for supplies, aid, and other resources during disasters – furthering the importance of airport resilience. The integration of resilience considerations in new airport development projects can help ensure that climate change impacts are taken into account at the time that major investments are made. It is widely accepted that planning and designing for natural hazards is far more cost-effective than retrofitting existing facilities or recovering from extreme events. The integration of resilience in design guidance can effectively elevate climate change impacts during the design and development phase for new airport infrastructure, and can aid in the prevention of future weather-related disruptions at potentially minimal cost to the airport.
Practice Information
| Capital Cost: | Marginal Cost (<$5,000 US) |
| O&M Cost: | Moderate (>$50,000 – $100,000 US) |
| Payback Period: | Moderate (5 – 15 years) |
| Staffing Requirements: | Moderate (50 – 200 hours per month) |
| Reportability of Metrics: | Qualitative metric |
| Maturity of Practice: | Trial tested |
| Energy Reduction: | No effect on energy consumption |
| Environmental Benefits: | Moderate environmental benefit |
| Social Benefits: | Significant, multiple social benefits |
Airport Characteristics
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Case Studies
9/30/2015
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey airports
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) has developed climate resilience design guidelines to address anticipated climate impacts when designing infrastructure and buildings. The guidelines consider several potential impacts, including higher temperatures, increased precipitation, sea level rise and severe storms. Due to the increased incidence of flooding of PANYNJ assets, the guidelines focus on avoiding flood impacts on future infrastructure through a ten-step approach. The approach encourages a collaborative effort led by the Project Engineer or Architect with information and support from various agency departments, including a representative from the Resilience and Sustainability Group. The steps are as follows: 1. Identify flood risks to project scope 2. Determine the influence of any area or system-wide strategy to determine if the project is sufficiently protected 3. Determine whether the project is part of an emergency plan or an enterprise risk plan and if so, incorporate these plans into the project if applicable. 4. Review current codes to determine the minimum flood projection or elevation level required 5. Determine funding source requirements/guidelines as projects receiving federal, state or local funding may need to incorporate specific flood resilience criteria 6. Identify critical infrastructure 7. Determine life expectancy, which may be directly tied to the risk of occurrence 8. Determine flood protection level: The PANYNJ has developed flood protection levels which adjust for anticipated sea level rise based on the design life and criticality of the asset. The project team should utilize these elevations unless the project is proven to be cost prohibitive based on the cost benefit analysis. 9. Perform Benefit Cost to weight the capital investment, the benefits associated with the mitigation strategy and the costs of not performing the investment over time 10. Establish flood resilience criteria that should then be incorporated into the Basis of Design.
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