Revamping Airport Systems: Essential Measures to Mitigate Climate Change Impact

Salgado Filho International Airport, in Rio Grande do Sul, was severely affected by the floods that hit the state and is only expected to reopen in September. Professor Jorge Eduardo Leal Medeiros, from the Polytechnic School (Poli) of the University of São Paulo, analyzes the next steps in restructuring the airport to return to operation and which criteria must be followed by airport structures to prevent the impacts of new climate issues.

According to the expert, the floods of the rivers that form the Guaíba occurred in an exceptional way and that is why the damage was so great, but he believes that the necessary investments were not dedicated to maintaining the set of dikes and pumps responsible for the drainage. Thus, Medeiros states that the results of bad investments and lack of administration were only felt after the tragedy.

“What has to be done now is to act to improve the defense. But, in the case of Porto Alegre Airport, the impact was brutal, because it has an annual movement of around 8 million passengers, which represents approximately 3.5% or 4% of all commercial air demand in the country”, account.

Damage
According to the professor, the landing strips did not suffer such strong impacts and the need for repairs, especially the paving, will still be analyzed. The passenger terminal, however, requires major restorations in terms of escalators, lighting and equipment built into the basement and the deadline for resuming operation in September, according to Medeiros, is adequate to remedy all the shortcomings. He says that the equipment and supports will also be analyzed in detail because they were certainly affected.

According to the professor, the National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) has already authorized the Canoas air base, close to Porto Alegre, to operate five daily flights to meet a series of demands in the region. Medeiros says that Anac will probably also release other airspace in small cities in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul to carry out this small number of flights.

Prevention
According to Eduardo Leal Medeiros, the case of Salgado Filho Airport highlights the importance of adapting the airport system to climate change and possible natural disasters. Regarding the sustainable aspect and mitigation of greenhouse gases, he says that there is already great concern among the competent authorities, but ways still need to be thought of to increasingly implement the use of renewable sources in airport equipment, as is the case in Brasília, in that 60% of the energy used is hydraulic.

“So we need to be increasingly concerned about this issue of protecting the air, how to protect these waters that may eventually return to cities. The government also needs to quickly increase the flight capacity of air bases near Porto Alegre. This is a very serious discussion and it needs to be considered whether these flights will be short or medium distance and whether they will be flights that will also serve cities in the interior of the State that do not have airports”, he concludes.