Climate change is one of the major challenges that society faces in the 21st century, negatively impacting not only natural ecosystems, but also anthropogenic ones: it’s estimated that economic losses caused by weather conditions and other extreme climate events on infrastructure systems in Europe in the period 1980-2016, they exceeded 436 billion euros (EEA 2017; Mims 2022). Critical infrastructures are essential for the proper functioning of a state’s economic and social system and the interruption of the services offered could cause serious damage. In this context, airports play a unique and significant role in the global transport system and, due to their characteristics, they are also those most exposed to the potential consequences of climate change. This research project therefore has the objective of identifying and developing ad hoc adaptation strategies in order to make these infrastructures more resilient to a climate that is no longer stationary. According to the definition reported in the sixth IPCC report, the risk will be calculated based on three specific factors: hazard, exposure and vulnerability.
11 months from 18/01/2024 to 30/11/2024
General aims
The aim of the project is to develop a risk analysis aimed at identifying the elements of the airport most vulnerable to climate dangers (present and/or expected) and to support the identification of specific adaptation measures for the various assets identified, to in order to make them more resilient to climate change.
CMCC role
Consulting activities to quantify climate risk on the Florence and Pisa airport
Activities
• Activity 1: Coordination and Project Management: at the beginning of the project, an in-person kick-off meeting is planned aimed at sharing the tools and contents of the activities covered by the scientific cooperation; during the period of carrying out the collaboration activities, monthly remote meetings are scheduled between the CMCC working group and Toscana Aeroporti in order to identify the project requirements, monitor the progress of the activities and guarantee the coordination of the order and the management of any critical issues; at the end of the project there will be a closing meeting during which the results achieved with the analyzes and evaluations carried out as part of the activities will be illustrated.
• Activity 2: development of the risk analysis through the identification and calculation of climate dangers (present and/or expected), exposure factors and vulnerability elements.
• Activity 3: promotion of innovation of the results obtained whose recipients are internal stakeholders (CMCC and Toscana Aeroporti), but also external ones, such as the bodies involved in land management and the scientific community.
Expected results
The final results of the analysis relating to climate danger (present and expected), exposure, vulnerability and climate risk will allow identifying the priority areas of intervention for airport operators so as to improve the infrastructure’s resilience to climate change and define specific adaptation strategies that are effective and consistent with regional strategies. Furthermore, the results of the risk analysis will be made available to all users identified by the Client, via the CMCC’s Dataclime platform (at the site: www.dataclime.com), via registered users. Within this user it will be possible to view and download all the maps of the chosen climatic indicators to evaluate the evolution of the climatic danger of interest in the area and the chosen period at the highest possible resolution.