News: Adapting Aviation to a Changing Climate: Identifying Future Priorities
Manchester Metropolitan University
Thursday 3rd September 2015
The aviation sector already deals with the challenges of disruptive and extreme weather. However, climate projections indicate that we can expect changes to the frequency and extremes of the weather that we currently experience. Some aviation industry organisations have begun preparing for a changing climate (see https://www.eurocontrol.int/Resilience) but there are uncertainties as to the impacts of climate changes and how resilient the industry is to these changes. And adaptation planning is not yet universal or mainstream.
This Workshop was an opportunity to develop our understanding of this important emerging area of research and practice. It was a forum for networking – bringing together a range of organisations and individuals with a professional interest in climate change adaptation within the aviation sector.
The Workshop was jointly organised by Manchester Metropolitan University (Christopher Paling) and EUROCONTROL (Rachel Burbidge).
Workshop Objectives
The purpose of this Workshop was to bring together industry experts, the research community, policy-makers and other agencies to:
- Clarify and consolidate our knowledge on the potential impacts of climate change for the sector and the adaptation and resilience measures which may be required;
- Develop an overview of what actions are already being taken to adapt aviation to a changing climate;
- Collectively identify knowledge, communication and skills gaps; and,
- Identify ways to address these gaps including future areas of research and collaboration.
Outputs
In the morning, there were a series of presentations describing the work undertaken so far in this area – the policy context, industry case studies and research. In the afternoon there was a workshop to explore future priorities in the broad areas of research, best practice, and collaboration and communication, including a consideration of risk assessment/action planning, infrastructure, operations, and future air travel patterns.
The Agenda, with links to the Speaker presentations are available here.
The Group outputs are available here.
Further Information
Christopher Paling
Project Manager – Climate Change
Centre for Aviation, Transport and the Environment (CATE)
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, M1 5GD, UK
Telephone: +44 (0) 161 247 1540
Email: c.paling@mmu.ac.uk
Last updated: 8th October 2015