Assessing and mitigating risk in airport greenfield and redevelopment programmes

Abstract

Security risk assessments at airports are an important practice to identify and mitigate threats of concern. Increasingly, airport risk assessments are evolving in three ways. First, conducting design-basis risk assessments — prior to new construction or redevelopment — provides value in identifying and mitigating risks during the design phase, where mitigation costs are significantly less than post-construction retro-fitting. Secondly, new threats emerge periodically, such as cybersecurity, insider threats and drones, which require creative mitigation measures. Thirdly, airports are finding value in addressing risks from an ‘all-hazards' standpoint — natural hazards, climate change, ageing infrastructure, technology resilience and human factors. This paper examines risk assessment processes, differences between existing facility and design-basis risk assessments, and processes and challenges associated with all-hazards risk assessment and mitigation.