Key Terms Used in This Primer

The following terms are used throughout this primer and are defined in this section. The terms and definitions are broadly consistent with those in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) glossary of terms and the United States (U.S.) Climate Resilience Toolkit but have been reworded for relevance to airports.

Adaptation: Measures that an airport can take to reduce the impacts of climate change. These measures could include hardening of infrastructure to allow it to better withstand climate events, as well as operational changes to allow the airport to more easily deal with and recover from damage and disruptions.

Adaptive capacity: An airport’s ability to adjust to climate variability and extremes, including minimizing potential damage and maintaining operations and services.

Climate hazard: A climate-related event or condition that may harm people, damage airport assets, or disrupt operations.

Climate projections: Modeled future climate conditions, based on assumptions about changes in greenhouse gas concentrations. Climate modelers apply an emissions scenario to a climate model or a suite of models to “project” future climate conditions based on the assumptions in that scenario.

Climate risk management: Proactive planning by airports to manage the potential impacts of climate change.

Consequences: See Impacts.

Criticality: The measure of how essential an asset or operation is to the function of airport operations and services (e.g., passenger usage, safety, emergency service such as hurricane shelter).

Emissions scenario: Hypothetical changes in greenhouse emissions over time leading to changes in atmospheric concentrations, based on assumptions about future population, economic trends, land use change, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Environmental justice: The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

Exposure: The extent to which people and airport assets may experience climate hazards.

Extreme weather event: An unusually strong weather event such as a heat wave, intense rainfall, drought, flooding, and severe storms.

Greenhouse gases (GHG): Gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide that absorb heat in the atmosphere near the Earth’s surface, preventing it from escaping into space.

Impacts: The effects (positive or negative) of climate hazards on airports.

Resilience: The capability of an airport to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate hazards.

Risk: Threats to life, health and safety, airport assets, operations, and finances. Risks are often evaluated in terms of their probability of occurring and the consequences that would result if they did happen.

Risk assessment: Studies that estimate the likelihood of impacts from climate hazards and their potential consequences.

Sensitivity: The degree to which airport assets and personnel may be affected by exposure to climate hazards.

Uncertainty: An expression of the degree to which future climate conditions are unknown. Climate uncertainty is caused by the complexity of the climate system, the ability of models to represent it, and the unpredictable nature of future societal changes such as population growth, economic growth, and technological development.

Vulnerability: The degree to which airports and their personnel are adversely affected by impacts of climate change.

Vulnerability assessment: An analysis of the degree to which an airport and its personnel may be adversely affected by impacts of climate change.

Why Your Airport Should Complete a Climate Vulnerability Assessment

The Changing Climate

The changing climate creates increased risk and uncertainty in the type, frequency, and intensity of weather events that your airport may experience. International and national-scale studies have demonstrated that climate conditions are changing, and global climate models indicate that these changes will only accelerate. Acknowledging that future weather events at your airport will likely look different from what is experienced today because of a changing climate is a first step toward taking action to adapt so that operations can be maintained.

Short- and Long-term Climate Impacts

Changes in weather patterns and events have both short- and long-term implications for airports, resulting in new or amplified climate hazards. In the short term, airports are experiencing more frequent disruptions to service as well as increased damage from weather events. Common examples of these include severe storms such as nor’easters and hurricanes grounding planes and directly impacting infrastructure, as well as extreme heat that limits runway use and puts workers at risk. In the long term, airports can expect these impacts to become more frequent and/or more intense, meaning over the coming decades the costs could become extensive and service delays regular.

Example Impacts of Climate Change

The IPCC, a world authority tasked with evaluating climate science, documents that the effects of a changing climate have increasingly been felt worldwide in recent decades. In the U.S., identified changes include increasing temperature, an increasing number of heavy rain days, sea level rise, and a number of other impacts described with the U.S. National Climate Assessment. The primary climate hazards of concern vary across North America and are summarized in Table 4-1 along with examples of their potential impact on airports.

Many of these climate impacts have the potential to affect air traffic, operations, and airport infrastructure. The degree to which climate change affects an airport is dependent on the magnitude of the change, the location of the airport, the airport’s level of preparedness, and the existing infrastructure’s ability to withstand extreme weather events that exceed design criteria for the infrastructure.

These climate impacts can affect many of the components critical to maintaining the functions of an airport. Appendix Table B-1 provides a breakdown of many common airport organizational components. During a climate vulnerability assessment, you may benefit from evaluating the risk to each component.

Preparing for Climate Impacts

In response to these climate impacts, airports can mitigate the disruptions and costs by planning for and adapting to them. For example, you may consider:

• designing infrastructure to withstand higher winds or occasional flooding;
• implementing operational measures that increase the ability to quickly reopen after a storm; and
• anticipating climate impacts in advance to minimize service disruptions.

The first step is to perform a climate vulnerability assessment. The vulnerability assessment informs your understanding of how future local climate conditions may differ from what you experience today and provides a process to evaluate how those changes could affect infrastructure assets and operations. The vulnerability assessment process will allow you to identify potential solutions and strategies to avoid or minimize increased risks of service disruption, which you can use to develop a timeline for implementation that may include financial investments. Articulating potential future risks can help illustrate how upfront investments can be cost-effective in the long term.

For detailed examples of how airports are preparing for climate impacts, see the case studies in Appendix A of this primer.

Table 0-1: Airport Asset Categories and Types