Abstract
Extreme summertime heat is becoming a major issue for aircraft operations. As global temperatures continue to rise, some of the heaviest planes on the longest flights may eventually be unable to depart during the hottest part of summer days. During summer days, some airports have to reduce the payload of aircraft, including cargo and/or passengers in the hotter days of summer. Nonetheless, there is no existing body of research on the potential for airport cooling. Furthermore, extreme heat on the ground also affects airport workers; loading and unloading luggage and servicing platforms between flights could become more arduous. With global warming proceeding, it is becoming increasingly urgent to find a suitable strategy to cool airport environments, perhaps by irrigation of a vegetated landscape. All airports have large enclosed areas (usually of grass) acting as a buffer between airport activities and the adjacent industrial, commercial and residential land utilization. This paper describes the trial of irrigating the buffer area of Adelaide airport and analyzes the performance of irrigation cooling for Adelaide airport, examining whether this can benefit human thermal comfort. Results indicate that irrigation provides cooling, and the cooling effect reduces along with the increasing instance from the middle of the irrigation area. At 15:00, the average air temperature was 1.8 °C cooler in the middle of the irrigation area than in the non-irrigation area, and the relative humidity was 5.8% higher during the trial period. On an extremely hot day (the maximum air temperature was 45.4 °C), it was 1.5 °C cooler in the middle of the irrigation area than upwind the of irrigation area, and 0.8 °C cooler than downwind of the irrigation area at 13:00. Human thermal comfort (HTC) is unfavorable in the runway, but greater improvements can be made through promotion of irrigation.
Highlights
Constant rise in urban temperature is a critical issue and challenge for scientists and urban planners, presenting a need to adapt control measures
Findings revealed that irrigation provides cooling, and the cooling effect reduces along with the increasing instance from the middle of the irrigation area
Temperature difference on extreme hot days tended to be larger, and it might be expected that this could have a significant influence on the airport operation if the entire buffer area was irrigated
Summary
Constant rise in urban temperature is a critical issue and challenge for scientists and urban planners, presenting a need to adapt control measures. In light of the rising temperatures due to climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) [3,4], it is important to recognize the role of irrigated public open space as a mitigating strategy for reducing urban heat and promoting human thermal comfort (HTC) [5,6]. Public open spaces have a unique role in climate change adaptation in several ways. Water-sensitive urban design (WSUD) is ‘a thoughtful way of urban design which is to minimize the hydrological influences of urban development on the adjoining environment’ [8,9,10]. It has begun to gain traction as a sustainable urban water management approach, and certain cooling benefits have been recently elaborated [13,14]. Opportunities to use cooling in an applied way to improve safety and economics, for example, of transport systems, have not yet been explored very well
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