The Resilient Aviation Infrastructure Workshop reflects an initial effort to determine if, and to what extent, changes in the climate may impact the national civilian and military aviation infrastructure by the middle of the current century. Workshop participants were experts drawn from the atmospheric and environmental sciences, civilian aviation, and military aviation communities, and represented the academic, government, and private sectors. 

The workshop was held over two days. The first day was dedicated to lectures from subject matter experts representing each of the three communities. The goal of these first-day lectures was to establish a shared knowledge base among all participants. The second day was dedicated to holding breakout groups made up of participants from the first day. Those groups independently considered a series of questions and provided a consensus statement to the larger group. The workshop consensus statement is based on the consensus statements provided by each group. The workshop consensus statement is as follows: 

It is the consensus of the Resilience Aviation Infrastructure Workshop participants that climate change will impact both civilian and military aviation infrastructure by mid-century and may currently be impacting the nation’s aviation infrastructure. The severity of climate change impacts at specific infrastructure nodes (e.g., airports) depends on the vulnerabilities inherent at a location. Whether the sum of collective climate change impacts risks long term, chronic impairment of the entire aviation infrastructure system remains an open question; however, it is the consensus of the group that acute impacts at specific locations will occur. 

This workshop report is organized into four sections: introduction; workshop activities to include the plenary, brainstorming session, and breakout sessions summaries; group consensus statements; and workshop conclusions.  Workshop Report