Gresham Smith Provides Climate Change Planning Guidance in ACRP Report 188

February 25, 2019

Gresham Smith announces the publication of Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Research Report 188: Using Existing Airport Management Systems to Manage Climate Risk. Managing climate risks at airports is critical to enhancing resiliency,  mitigating operational issues and minimizing long-term costs. The handbook examines how to reduce vulnerabilities to current and projected impacts of climate change by integrating those risks into existing airport management systems and planning.

ACRP 188 includes a self-assessment tool for determining the applicable systems for climate-related decision-making within the airport. It covers how to integrate climate risk into seven key management systems: strategic planning, master planning, enterprise risk management, safety management, capital planning, asset management, and emergency management. It also  features strategies for building support across the airport as well as a quick start guide to outline the most critical portions of the handbook.

“We focused on creating an accessible guidebook that anyone involved in planning processes could digest and apply,” said Timothy P. Arendt, P.E., senior environmental engineer, Gresham Smith. “The report provides airports tactical advice on how to merge climate risks into existing systems and planning rather than viewing climate change as new and separate risk to address. This optimized, more streamlined approach helps airports make more informed decisions and better manage risk.”

The research team comprised of ICF, Gresham Smith and Faith Group, LLC. Gresham Smith brought its extensive knowledge of airport operations to bear to create a practical and applicable resource as well as facilitated testing with airports. The handbook uses the ACRP Report Climate Risk Operational Screening (ACROS) Tool to gather airport-specific projections of climate hazards and associated infrastructure impacts as part of the self-assessment. Gresham Smith previously helped develop the ACROS tool in partnership with Dewberry, which can be found in ACRP Report 147: Climate Change Adaptation Planning: Risk Assessment for Airports, in partnership with Dewberry. Report 188 is the next step in providing timely, accessible tools to airports as they seek to address the site-specific risks created by a changing climate. Gresham Smith has participated in numerous ACRP research reports to dig into issues and identify practical solutions.