National Academies Press: OpenBook

Climate Resilience and Benefit–Cost Analysis: A Handbook for Airports (2019)

Chapter: Chapter 4 - Potential Airport Impacts

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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 4 - Potential Airport Impacts." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Climate Resilience and Benefit–Cost Analysis: A Handbook for Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25497.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 4 - Potential Airport Impacts." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Climate Resilience and Benefit–Cost Analysis: A Handbook for Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25497.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 4 - Potential Airport Impacts." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Climate Resilience and Benefit–Cost Analysis: A Handbook for Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25497.
×
Page 36
Page 37
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 4 - Potential Airport Impacts." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Climate Resilience and Benefit–Cost Analysis: A Handbook for Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25497.
×
Page 37
Page 38
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 4 - Potential Airport Impacts." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Climate Resilience and Benefit–Cost Analysis: A Handbook for Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25497.
×
Page 38
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 4 - Potential Airport Impacts." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Climate Resilience and Benefit–Cost Analysis: A Handbook for Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25497.
×
Page 39

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34 In addition to obtaining projections of the increased likelihood of high temperatures, pre- cipitation, or flooding, a central issue to address is how to identify and measure potential impacts on airport assets, infrastructure, and operations. Here, already existing resources can be used to describe how to accomplish this task. 4.1 Identifying and Targeting Airport Assets and Infrastructure Before assessing potential impacts of projected climate change stressors, one must first iden- tify the relevant assets or infrastructure operations that may be affected. Again, the ACROS software (Dewberry et al. 2015) can be used to provide a good starting point. It identifies a global C H A P T E R 4 Potential Airport Impacts About This Chapter Chapter 4 presents a general discussion of potential airport impacts from climate change. It is meant to provide useful context for identifying and assessing relevant air- port assets and their level of vulnerability to potential climate change impacts. Key topics discussed include: • Identifying relevant airport assets and infrastructure that may be affected, • Assessing how vulnerable these assets and infrastructure may be, and • Assessing criticality—how partial or complete failure of an asset may affect the airport. Note to Readers Chapter 2 described some of the primary impacts of sea level rise and high temper- atures on airports. If the reader is primarily interested in the methodologies presented in Chapters 2, 3, and associated Appendices C and D in order to explore the analytics of a risk-adjusted sea level rise or high-temperature analysis, consider skipping to Chapter 7, which describes the results of four case studies. About the Next Chapter Chapter 5 discusses potential responses, adaptations, or mitigation strategies that an airport may undertake in response to climate threats.

Potential Airport Impacts 35 list of 33 potential physical assets and 10 potential operational components (each categorized into one of 10 service categories) that could in principle be affected by climate change. These assets and operational components are shown in Exhibit 4-1. An individual airport could begin the process of identifying relevant assets and operations by starting with this list and culling or adding to it as necessary. Another valuable resource is ACRP Report 69: Asset and Infrastructure Management for Air- ports (GHD, Inc. 2012), which essentially applies the same enterprise-wide approach to asset management that ACRP Report 74 and ACRP Report 116 (Marsh Risk Consulting 2012; Price Source: ACRP Report 147 (Dewberry et al. 2015). SERVICE CATEGORY ASSETS OPERATIONAL COMPONENTS Ground Service Equipment Aircraft Performance Demand and Capacity Navigational Aids Runways, Taxiways, and Holding Areas Apron Curbside Amenities Gates Gates (Passenger Boarding Bridges) Aircraft Parking Aprons Flight Schools and Pilot Shops General Aviation Terminal Facilities Hangars Loading and Unloading Equipment / Operation Tie-Down Areas Transient Aircraft Parking Apron Areas Air Cargo Buildings Apron Loading and Unloading Equipment / Operation Access Roads Parking Facilities Rail (Internal to the Airport, e.g., Monorail) Aircraft Fuel Storage / Fueling Airline Maintenance Facilities Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) Airport Administrative Areas FAA Facilities (Air Traffic Control Tower) Flight Kitchens Weather Reporting Facilities On-Site Electrical Infrastructure Communications Sanitary Sewer Stormwater Drainage Water Distribution Systems Bird and Wildlife Hazard Management Environmental (Noise, Air Quality, Water Quality and Quantity) Snow and Ice Control (De-Icing) Regional Infrastructure Construction Activities Parks Grounds and Landscaping Personnel and Passengers Ground Access, Circulation, and Parking Other Support Facilities Utilities Aircraft / GSE Airfield / Airspace Cargo Environmental and Safety General Aviation Facilities Commercial Passenger Terminal Facilities Commercial Passenger Terminal Facilities Exhibit 4-1. ACROS assets and operational components.

36 Climate Resilience and Benefit–Cost Analysis: A Handbook for Airports 2014; see discussion in Appendix A) provide for risk management. It describes a formal structured approach to managing assets across an organization, including development of an asset register that puts assets into a hierarchy and ranks them according to various measures such as current condition, effective life, cost of renewal, and probability and consequences of failure. 4.2 Assessing Vulnerability Due to Climate Change Risks Once the relevant assets and operations have been identified, the next step is to assess the potential vulnerability of the assets so that one can ultimately identify those most in need of attention and further analysis. Vulnerability in this context depends not only on its susceptibility to failure from a climate change event but also on the likelihood of that event occurring. With this in mind, the ACROS or VAST software described in Chapter 3 could be used to aid in the process of evaluating vulnerability. One of the modules in ACROS provides, using a simple three-point scale, an assessment of the vulnerability of various assets for a given airport. While default values are supplied, it is strongly suggested that users modify the values based on specific conditions at their airport. The VAST spreadsheet provides an alternative but somewhat similar framework where users can list their assets and calculate a vulnerability score for each. It is up to the user to identify relevant assets and then assign scores to individual indicators belonging to each of the following three vulnerability components: • Exposure: whether an asset will experience a given climate stressor, • Sensitivity: whether and to what extent an asset will be damaged or disrupted due to expo- sure, and • Adaptive capacity: how well the system at large can mitigate damage or disruption. The model computes a weighted average of the indicator scores for each component and then a weighted average across the components to generate a single vulnerability score for each asset. The assets then can be ranked in terms of their vulnerability scores. Exhibit 4-2 is reprinted from the VAST User Guide and provides a visual description of how the tool works. 4.3 Assessing Criticality Criticality refers to the consequences of failure of an asset for the operation of the airport. Once again, the ACROS software could be used as a starting point, where a three-point scale would be used to rank the level of criticality for each asset. Or using a more structured approach, one could assess criticality with reference to ACRP Report 69 (described earlier), using an asset register where multiple dimensions of criticality related to the asset can be considered. Another useful way to begin to screen assets for potential criticality is to consider their place- ment in FAA’s existing BCA guidance (FAA, Office of Aviation Policy and Plans 1999) on benefit categories. The FAA guidance document lists a fairly large number of airport infrastructure projects and identifies the typical types of benefits associated with each. By reviewing the list of potential benefits associated with a particular asset, one can begin to judge its likely criticality to the airport. The relevant table is reprinted as Exhibit 4-3. By carefully reviewing these benefit categories, the resilience team may gain valuable insight to help them screen their assets to identify those most critical to the airport before actually trying to estimate their potential financial impacts.

Potential Airport Impacts 37 Finally, airport managers may assess criticality in terms of how interruption in the avail- ability of infrastructure would have financial impacts on the airport or its users. Most airports have a financial planning model that is used to develop annual budgets and airport user fees. For example, if a runway is vulnerable to flooding, then the analyst might assess what it would cost the airport if the resulting reduction in capacity affected delays, cancellations, user fees, and concession revenues. Such interruptions may also have adverse effects on commercial operators; if the interruptions are likely to become more frequent, users may be willing to pay for resil- ience projects. In many cases, an airport’s experience with past interruptions can provide valu- able information to help estimate future impacts of climate change. Chapter 2 further discusses who should be involved in these activities and their roles. Other considerations that may affect the screening process are discussed in Chapter 5. Source: U.S. DOT 2015, Figure 2. Exhibit 4-2. VAST approach diagram.

38 Climate Resilience and Benefit–Cost Analysis: A Handbook for Airports Exhibit 4-3. FAA benefits of airport projects.

Potential Airport Impacts 39 Source: FAA, Office of Aviation Policy and Plans, 1999. Exhibit 4-3. (Continued).

Next: Chapter 5 - Responses and Adaptations »
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TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Research Report 199: Climate Resilience and Benefit–Cost Analysis: A Handbook for Airports provides information on how to apply benefit–cost analysis tools and techniques to improve decision making affecting resilience of airport infrastructure projects in response to potential long-term impacts of climate change and extreme weather events.

The handbook is designed to improve the process by which infrastructure investment strategies are evaluated, with an emphasis on ensuring climate-related resiliency.

Procedures for presenting assumptions and results transparently and for implementing the process are also included so that industry users and decision makers can understand and communicate the outcome of the analytical process.

Based on data availability, the analytical methods included in the handbook focus on two specific areas of climate change likely to affect airports (although these methods can, in principle, be used more widely): (1) the potential for extreme flooding events resulting from storm surge and sea level rise near coastal airports, and (2) the potential for rising temperatures that require weight restrictions on aircraft takeoffs (or possibly full flight delays) at airports with shorter runways in warm climates or at high elevations.

The results available from application of the suggested methodologies do not necessarily make the decision of whether to invest in a mitigation project to combat climate change any easier but, rather, provide a full range of potential outcomes and possibilities for airport planners and managers to consider. Using this methodology, airport decision makers can then determine how much risk from uncertain climate change and extreme weather events they are willing or able to accommodate. Implementation of the methods presented in the handbook can be used to obtain essential quantifiable estimates of those risks, which is of particular value to airport financial professionals.

The handbook is accompanied by a set of Microsoft Excel models to support the decision-making process (one for extreme water rise causing potential flooding events, and the other for high temperatures that may affect weight restrictions on aircraft takeoffs), a video tutorial, a report summary document, and an executive briefing to help decision makers understand the process.

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