An overview of climate hazard impacts to the global airport system

In recent years airports have demonstrated sensitivity to climate hazards, raising various safety, environmental and socio-economic concerns. Evidence from the literature indicates that the occurrence of climate hazard events, including sea-level rise, extreme heat, precipitation changes and convective weather, is likely to become more frequent as a result of climatic change. This, in turn, is likely to place additional stress on airports infrastructure and threatening its ability to maintain their social and economic function. While climate adaptation and hazard impacts are more established in other major sectors, in the case of airports this issue has only more recently emerged as a risk.

By examining the key challenges airports face in different geographical regions and climate zones, this study examines how climate extremes and hydrological hazards affect the airport system and, presents best practices to improve the resilience of airport infrastructure. The key objective of this contribution is to provide a better understanding of the direct and indirect impact of climate hazards and to outline some of the aspects that could be included in climate hazard risk reduction strategies in the future.