Methodology Used for Comparing Two Locations for the New Lisbon Airport Based on the Impacts on Surface Water
Lisbon airport, named Portela, was constructed in 1940 and needs to be replaced with a more modern and improved infrastructure, to serve future demands. In spite of the fact that the need of a new airport was foreseen four decades ago, only in 1999 a site
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Introduction Lisbon airport, named Portela, was constructed in 1940 and needs to be replaced with a more modern and improved infrastructure, to serve future demands. In spite of the fact that the need of a new airport was foreseen four decades ago, only in 1999 a site was formally chosen. Unexpectedly, a private proposal for an alternative location for the New Lisbon Airport (NLA) was announced and published in 2007, starting a public and political discussion about the goodness of the first choice. The Portuguese Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Communications commissioned the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC) to perform a technical comparison of the two alternative locations for the NLA. The study was assigned in June 2007, and deserved a major focus of attention from different sectors of the society – politicians, economists, entrepreneurs, academics and the public in general. LNEC assigned the study to a multidisciplinary team of more than 40 people, including LNEC researchers and consultants from universities and private companies, both national and international. The study took into account the assessment of several environmental, social and economic factors. This paper presents the study undertaken by the team from LNEC that was responsible for the comparison of the effects of the NLA on surface water resources at the two possible locations. More details of the work can be found in reports published in Portugal [1, 2]. Any new urbanization project may have different proposed locations within a country and/or region, each of one serving some specific social, economical or other objective. The political decision processes concerning alternative locations of major national infrastructures must take into account, amongst other factors, the effects of the project in the environment and the cost of environmental mitigation measures.
A.E. Barbosa (*), J.S. Rocha, and J.N. Fernandes National Laboratory for Civil Engineering, Hydraulics and Environment Department, Av. do Brasil, 101, 1700-066, Lisbon, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] S. Rauch et al. (eds.), Highway and Urban Environment, Alliance for Global Sustainability Bookseries 17, DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3043-6_22, © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
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Urban development and new infrastructures on a catchment have negative effects on the local water quality and quantity balance. The hydrological regime is changed, with increased volumes of stormwater runoff, higher peak flow rates and flood water levels as well as lower base flows in watercourses, reduction of soil moisture and groundwater recharge. Additionally, there is an increase in pollutant loads diverted into sewers or surface waters. The new demand of water for different uses (domestic and industrial) must be considered – it can place pressure on the local water system (surface or groundwater) or represent an important cost in treating water for consumption, in the case of lack of quality of the local resources. A new airport will produce two
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