Preparing U.S. Airport Infrastructure for Weather Events (2026)
Chapter: Day 2 Keynote Address
Day 2 Keynote Address
Erin Cooke, San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
Erin Cooke discussed the development of SFO’s Climate and Natural Hazard Vulnerability Assessment and Resilience Plan. She discussed steps and progress toward developing the resilience plan and provided examples of other resilience-related planning efforts and projects at SFO.
Cooke said that, like many airports, SFO has experienced hazard events, and the airport is working to understand their unique hazard environment. She provided background information on SFO stating that the SFO campus has changed significantly in the past 2 years with the opening of Terminal 1. The airport is a department of the city and county of San Francisco and is not tied to the port. Airport revenue stays within the airport environment and infrastructure. Cooke shared that SFO has recovered to approximately 90 percent passenger traffic after the Covid-19 pandemic. She noted that SFO serves as a gateway to the Asia–Pacific region. As the airport continues to grow, the organization is focused on investing in infrastructure to accommodate a forecasted 71 million passengers. The airport is currently undertaking an $11 billion capital improvement program, and the airport is the largest driver of the local economy.
Cooke discussed SFO’s mission statement and strategic plan. She explained that the airport intends to deliver an airport experience where people and the planet come first. SFO seeks to be an industry leader in emissions reduction and in positively impacting the planet. The airport has goals for zero carbon and zero waste. Cooke explained that SFO mobilizes toward achieving the goals through reporting and documentation, including a portfolio of reports and plans and a dashboard that highlights the progress toward their goals while sustaining growth of passenger traffic and airlines.
Cooke described the airport’s resilience efforts and the overall goal to maintain air service. She noted that in hazard events, response and recovery is the focus. When a shock occurs, the airport has a robust emergency response plan to follow. Cooke explained that every year, airport staff practice an exercise to follow the plan. The airport also has a business continuity plan. These processes are in place, but the next step is understanding the infrastructure itself.
Cooke explained how SFO wanted to take a deeper look at their infrastructure and its resilience. An internal stakeholder group at SFO developed the definition of resilience for SFO. The airport is located on San Francisco Bay, which is experiencing sea-level rise. Cooke explained that SFO is developing a shoreline protection program to protect
against sea-level rise and preserve the longevity of the airport infrastructure.42 The airport considered studies conducted by many federal, state, and local entities to inform their decision-making. The airport is undertaking a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure modernization plan to ensure utility systems are redundant to reduce vulnerability and risk.43 Cooke noted that buildings also need to be able to be flexible and adjust where utilities have interoperability.
Cooke identified steps in SFO’s resilience plan framework as follows:
- Identify hazards (unique to the airport and its operating environment): Conduct hazard assessments through FEMA, state, and city plans. Review existing plans and determine hazards.
- Identify critical assets: With stakeholder engagement and various departments involved, determine the ability of the asset to go offline and still achieve the airport’s mission. Consider safety, security, emergency management, and minimum level of service needed for safety response. SFO indexed their assets to determine which were critical for the airport to function. Twelve assets were identified as critical. SFO then considered the current performance and vulnerability of each asset and prioritized them to determine capital improvement plan investments.
- Assess vulnerability and risk: Identify hazards and climate modeling and consider confluence events in which hazards are stacked. Vulnerability is based on the asset condition (e.g., age and sensitivity). Determine risk to the asset and the subsequent risk to the airport. SFO developed an inventory of physical asset conditions and deficiencies. The age of the assets helped SFO determine the building code requirements according to the buildings’ age, since state and local requirements are strict in California, especially in relation to seismic code. Seismic design criteria are most ambitious for SFO’s International Terminal. It is built on base isolators with a large ball-and-socket structure that moves with earthquakes. That terminal will likely be identified as a critical asset, since it is built to be seismically resilient.
Cooke described that California experiences many power outages due to heat waves that result in large electricity loads and power shut-off events. She noted that SFO must be prepared if the power is shut off. The airport developed an Electrical Shortage Response Plan to prepare for market shortages, led by SFO’s Emergency Management
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42 City and County of San Francisco Planning Department. Draft Environmental Impact Report, San Francisco International Airport Shoreline Protection Program. August 31, 2022. Case No. 2020-004398ENV. State Clearinghouse No. 2020110456. https://sfplanning.org/environmental-review-documents and download PDF: https://citypln-m-extnl.sfgov.org/SharedLinks.aspx?accesskey=8c03102847cb608526103ddc2b700e387f2744ad1bdbd4f092c05b1416e2aa6e&VaultGUID=A4A7DACD-B0DC-4322-BD29-F6F07103C6E0.
43 SFO. SFO Infrastructure Resilience Framework. p. 24. September 2022. https://sustainability.flysfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IRF-Report-v6-1.pdf.
Team. If there is a deficiency in the power grid, it results in a wave of notifications. The plan involves convening stakeholders to determine the best approach to reduce the electricity load on the campus. SFO utilizes load management technologies and approaches. Cooke identified electric vehicle charging stations as an example of an intelligent system for managing loads.
Cooke provided another resilience example at SFO. The airport’s maintenance team advocated for a recycled water treatment plant. She explained the goal of the plant is to produce potable water through recaptured water that can be deployed back to terminals and used in irrigation. The capital project will be completed in 2026 and is expected to reduce water use on SFO’s campus by at least 40 percent. Cooke emphasized that water is critical in an emergency response. This facility will allow the airport to produce potable water and serve as a resource in the event of an emergency.
Cooke provided another example in which the airport partnered with the Smart Surfaces Coalition to support a report on urban heat islands’ effects at the airport.44 The report considers the albedo of heat-trapping surfaces, the surface temperature of the airport, and how to reduce heat effects. During peak heat days, the temperature can increase 10 degrees on the airfield. Cooke noted that people on the airfield are overheating, which leads to poor health quality, so SFO is seeking to use lighter colors, green roofs, and other approaches to reduce impacts.
Cooke outlined that the airport’s next steps include completing the resiliency strategy and identifying a series of capital projects for investment in critical infrastructure. Then the airport will identify the next generation of projects needed to support business continuity and emergency response. Cooke noted that SFO is adopting standards to put in place for future buildings.
The session then transitioned to a Q&A period with the audience.
Question 1: An audience member asked about priorities in critical asset identification.
Cooke replied that the airport’s hope is to build up the critical assets so that there would not be a permanent loss of service. She noted the preference to “bend but not break” and attempt to eliminate opportunities for total loss.
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44 Isachsen, I., G. Kats, D. Berkowitz, I. Suazo Meza, H. Taha, B. Alahmad, R. McCuaig, and E. Wesley. 2025. Smart Surfaces: A Study for San Francisco International Airport 2023–2024. Smart Surfaces Coalition. https://smartsurfacescoalition.org/analysis/2025/2/19/a-modeling-study-of-cool-surfaces-and-outdoor-workers-productivity-at-san-francisco-international-airport-fd9gh.
Question 2: How has the airport dealt with and planned for confluence events, such as a pandemic and wildfires occurring simultaneously?
Cooke replied that SFO is working with stakeholders to determine what is needed in emergency situations, and SFO’s emergency management plan now includes a pandemic chapter. SFO’s resilience plan focuses on the infrastructure itself and how to maintain critical systems regardless of the shocks. SFO’s business continuity and emergency management plans also focus on the people and resources component of recovery and response.
Question 3: What is the material used for the seawall?
Cooke replied that she was not aware of the material used. (Please refer to Footnote 42 to access the draft environmental impact report for the project to obtain additional project details.)
Question 4: How does the airport determine the life-cycle costs of projects for capital planning, including operations and maintenance costs and training for internal maintenance staff?
Cooke offered that for each contract, SFO uses a triple bottom-line cost analysis Autocase tool. Utility cost factors and emission reductions are built into the tool. She explained that a total cost of ownership study was conducted for a certain project to determine whether airport ownership of the asset was justified. The airport is considering various ownership and operations models to potentially outsource operations and maintenance of some assets.
