Copenhagen Airport ready with climate plan

Copenhagen Airport is one of Northern Europe's largest and most important traffic hubs, and 2013 was the third successive year with record passenger numbers totalling 24.1 million. The area of the airport extends over 12.4 km2, corresponding to a small Danish municipality. Every part of the airport's infrastructure must be fully functional day and night, no matter what the weather, and any change in the climate will affect airport traffic in one way or another. However, in fact Copenhagen Airport has only relatively recently started to look further into the future to take account of climate change. 

The process of drawing up a climate plan for Copenhagen Airport entered the agenda in 2011. In the previous year, the Danish Ministry of Transport, the sector authority for Danish airports, published its climate change adaptation strategy. The strategy states:

"In connection with routine inspections of Danish airfields, the Danish Civil Aviation Authority (CAA-DK) will focus on the effects of expected climate change on the individual airfield. In this context the measures considered by the airfields will be examined, including whether risk assessments have been completed or are planned."

"We started with a broad-brush approach and investigated all the many types of climate impacts that could hit us, such as rises in temperature and changes in precipitation and wind patterns. Wind patterns in particular are important for us and the way the airport is organised. But as the climate scenarios available are a little too general, we are considering the possibility of making a more precise analysis of the impact of climate change for the future wind patterns on Amager," said Inger Seeberg Sturm, head of environment at Copenhagen Airport.

"What is special about working with the climate plan is that you have to look 50-60 years ahead. This is an extremely long time when you are thinking about whether it is worth investing in climate-adaptation solutions. The recommendations in the climate plan are therefore mostly related to increased precipitation and the combination effects with rises in the water table which we already monitor once a year," she said.

Most of Copenhagen Airport is in the Municipality of Tårnby, while a small part is in Dragør. The Airport is in regular dialogue with both municipalities to establish the best possible cohesion between the Airport's climate plan and the climate plans adopted by the two municipalities. Like all the other Danish municipalities, Dragør and Tårnby must draw up climate plans as part of their municipal development plan.

As with the climate change adaptation strategies the municipalities have to prepare, the Copenhagen Airport climate plan has clear focus on increased precipitation and rises in sea levels. The Airport is exceptional in that it has rarely had great problems in draining off surface water. During the extreme cloudburst which hit Copenhagen on 2 July 2011, the Airport's own rain and wastewater drains coped well and did not burst. Air traffic continued as scheduled. The problem was that the motorway to the Airport was flooded so passengers could not get to the Airport on time.

"Firstly, the cloudburst didn't hit Amager with the same force as the City Centre. Secondly, the incident shows that the people who designed the Airport's drainage system 50 years ago got their numbers right," said Bo Schytte from the consultancy firm MOE, who has deep insight into the Airport's drainage system.

In connection with the climate plan, MOE calculated the capacity and flow in the pipes for five-year and ten-year events using the calculation tool MIKE Urban, and they linked this with a surface run-off model.

"The calculations are based on current conditions. If you multiply this with a climate factor of 1.72 over 50 years, capacity begins to get critical. Among other things, this means that, if large extensions are to be made to the airport, it is important to consider what to do with the excess water," said Bo Schytte.

The model calculations forming the foundation of the Airport's climate plan made it clear that the most important climate change adaptation work right now was to have an emergency response plan which could take effect when extreme rain is forecast.

"The emergency response plan has now been completed for the Airport and it indicates the important areas to be protected first so that the Airport doesn't have to close down for a longer period. For example this includes important transformer stations, certain low-lying buildings and the baggage system. It's no use having aircraft able to take off while the passengers can't take their baggage with them," said Bo Schytte.

The emergency response plan also indicates the stands and taxiways that will rapidly be operational again once the cloudburst has peaked, and those requiring help to drain off the water. Therefore very precise instructions have been prepared for the emergency crews so that each person knows how many sandbags and pumps are required, where they have to go and how they should be placed.

"We like practical, simple and cost-effective solutions. For example, a stock of sandbags is preferable to buying a lot of pumps which are expensive to operate and maintain. The plan also includes proposals to procure mobile dams which can act as reservoirs into which water can be pumped and which could perhaps be used in other situations. However in the end it is up to the Airport to make priorities. How much money will you spend on protection against extreme events which may only occur every 50 or 100 years? On the other hand, within the past 10 years we have seen 100-year events in the Danish cities of Copenhagen, Greve and Ishøj," said Bo Schytte.

The next step is for the Airport to decide which of the recommended solutions it will implement, and in what order.