Sustainable Water Management at Major Australian Regional Airports: The Case of Mildura Airport

Abstract

Sustainable water management is an essential aspect of all industries. This is particularly true in regional Australia, which in known for its harsh climate, with arid conditions. In this work we investigate the sustainable water management of major Australian regional airports. A specific case study of Mildura Airport, as the largest regional airport in the State of Victoria, is presented. Potable water is of particular importance, as it has the largest cost associated with its use. Sustainable means of supplying potable water can be significant to the operating costs of a regional airport. In an attempt to determine the potential for water harvesting at regional airports a novel image processing approach was taken to analyse the water capture area. This involved utilising satellite imagery and the image processing functionalities of Matlab, with some simple mathematics to estimate roofed areas. From here meteorological data gives rainfall data, in terms of depth, facilitating volume capture potentials. It was found that the average potable water harvesting potential for Mildura Airport is 3.964 megalitres per year.

An Assessment of Airport Sustainability: Part 3—Water Management at Copenhagen Airport

“…These include drinking water for airport staff working on the airside, washing of aircraft and ground service vehicles, the flushing of toilets, personal hygiene (for example, washing of hands and in showers provided for airport-related staff), as well as cooking and beverages provided by concessionaires operating restaurants and coffee shops in the airside terminal precinct and by flight catering firms operating on the airside at the airport. 1 Air cargo terminals are locations in which individual air cargo consignments shipments are built up into cargo loads ready for loading onto an airline's aircraft and, following transport to their destination, are broken down again into individual shipments for delivery to the final customer [12].…”

“…Sustainable water management is a critical issue for airports [1]. This is because airports consume substantial amounts of water to maintain both their infrastructure and operations [2][3][4].…”

Examination of Sustainable Water Management at Norway’s Major Hub Airport: The Case of Oslo Airport Gardermoen

“…In addition, wastewater is produced in large quantities at airports [6]. In view of the adverse impact these two could have on the environment, airports around the world are seeking to establish and implement sustainable water management strategies and policies [7,8].…”

Evaluation of Airport Sustainability by the Synthetic Evaluation Method: A Case Study of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, China, from 2008 to 2017

“…It is necessary to clarify the existing practical operational problems of airports and understand the relationship between the theory and practice. Some scholars discuss airport sustainability from a certain aspect of daily operation and give some suggestions on practical operation, such as airport energy management [19], water resource utilization [20], airport pavement materials [21], and the development of commercial aspects of airports [22], and so on. Although these studies are easy to carry out, they lack structure and integrity.…”