Ever since the mid-20th century, flying has become an indispensable part of the worldwide economy.  This is the case for New York especially, who’s three major airports, John F, Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty, contribute about $37.3 billion to the regional economy (NYC’S Risk Landscape).  Today, with temperatures rising and unprecedented storms occurring worldwide, many airports are not prepared.  This could lead to a significant and expensive economic problem because flying is one of the most profitable forms of transportation.   The temperature increase over the past decade has caused the tar on the runways to melt which restricts takeoff, delays flights and may require more restrictions on the weight a plane can carry, meaning the loss of customers and seats.  In the study, “Impacts of Rising Temperatures on Aircraft Takeoff Performance”, it was found that the rise in temperature has caused a weight requirement on 10-30% of annual flights that departed at the max temperature for that day (Coffel, Thompson and Horton).  In addition to a rise in temperature, a rise in sea levels, which is expected to be about six or seven feet this century, can cause harm to low lying airports.  As seen in this article, human efficiency and transport is greatly affected by the changing climate and infrastructure should include risk management for the worst case scenarios.

Although this article focused more on airports worldwide, New York’s airports are equally affected by climate change and storm surges as presented in New York’s Risk Landscape assessment.  Both of New York’s local airports are located on floodplains and have already been subject to flooding.  LaGuardia, which was built next to the East River, and JFK, which is next to Jamaica bay, have both closed during Sandy and had taken 3 days to come back to operation.  What New York does to manage the risk of flooding on the infrastructure of airports specifically has not been stated.  In the article, a Norwegian airport planner took on the problem of rising sea levels and flooding and “decided to build all the future runways at least 23 feet above sea level.” (Ives).  To do such a thing in New York would mean shutting down the airports and finding solid ground to even build 23 feet above sea level.  In terms of extreme heat or heat waves, New York City does not have any specific threats to airports but extreme heat can lead to power outages which can in turn affect airline efficiency.

Humans fail to realize how much of an effect Earth’s climate has on the functioning on all parts of society.  Since 1980 average global temperatures have gone up by 2 degrees and have not been a major problem until certain functions of society start to shut down because of it (Pattani).  In order to keep the economy running and society functioning smoothly there should be more risk assessment when building infrastructure in New York City and globally.  This article proves that worldwide planners of various types of infrastructure are looking to the climate to determine their next building move.

 

Works cited:

Ives, Mike. “In a Warming World, Keeping the Planes Running.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Sept. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/09/30/business/airports-climate-change-global-warming.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fasia.

Plan for Hazards – Hazard Mitigation – NYCEM – New York City.

Coffel, Ethan D., et al. “The impacts of rising temperatures on aircraft takeoff performance.” SpringerLink, Springer Netherlands, 13 July 2017, link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-017-2018-9.

Pattani, Aneri. “How a Warming Climate Will Trouble Air Travel.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 July 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/climate/global-warming-air-travel.html.