Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

International experts and representatives from various airport areas met in Paris from 4 to 6 April, coinciding with the Airport Regions Conference (ARC), at the third and last meeting of the Metropolis: Sustainable airport areas iniciative.

The participants represented the airport areas of Atlanta, Barcelona (AMB), Beijing, Brussels, Dakar, Guarulhos, Hong Kong, Incheon, Paris, Shanghai, Vancouver and Vantaa.

Fouad Awada, Director General of the Paris Region Planning and Development Agency (IAU) welcomed the participants, and opened the conference, which included various workshops on the main challenges for airports identified during the project: the environment, mobility and accessibility, economic development, and urban planning. The various groups identified and shared the key points and best practices in each field. The members participating in the workshop were also able to visit the training centre at Orly airport.

International airports and their surrounding areas are becoming major economic and urban hubs, which are increasingly strategic in terms of the development of their regions and their entire countries. However, they may at the same time have a negative impact on the environment, such as in air pollution, traffic congestion and their use of agricultural land, in addition to problems of governance, socio-economic inclusion and the accessibility of public transport.

The authorities responsible for managing them and the public officials participating in this initiative, like Sergi Alegre, representing the metropolis of Barcelona, are aware of this issue, and want to alleviate its effects by optimising their economic potential in a more sustainable way.

The outcome of the project will be the publication of a good practices guide for sustainable airport areas, which will compile best practices for the main sustainability issues involved in the planning, development and management of international airport areas, and which will be presented during the 12th Metropolis World Congress in Montreal, del 19 al 22 de juny del 2017.