From airport to aiport city

Güller, Michael & Mathis

ISBN 10: 8425219051 / ISBN 13: 9788425219054

Edité par Editorial Gustavo Gili, S.L. 0

A propos de cet article

Very Good. Dust Jacket may NOT BE INCLUDED.CDs may be missing. SHIPS FROM MULTIPLE LOCATIONS.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: From airport to aiport city
• Éditeur: Editorial Gustavo Gili, S.L. 0
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 8425219051
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9788425219054
• Reliure: paperback
• État de l'article: Very Good
• État de la jaquette: Jaquette
• Type de livre: book

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

Airports are not just airports any more. Forgoing their status as simple traffic machines, airports can rightly be considered as decisive for the transformation of the metropolitan area. Propelled by a series of strategic investments, they have assumed a key position in High Speed Train and railway networks, a position until recently reserved for central stations alone. Being the undisputed interfaces of entire European regions, airports become centres of activity within them, new regional development poles, or simply "airport cities". But the self-confidence with which many airport operators expand the scope of their activities in relation to these new opportunities is not yet reflected in airport planning. Most plans for airport cities are still designed according to the logic of an efficient airport infrastructure.

This book collates and deciphers the evidence of these processes, based on experience in Europe's major airport regions. It presents a vision of the influence of airports in rearranging landside traffic networks and in reorganising the territory of the metropolitan area. And it develops a new framework for airport planning, one that allows for participation in the shaping of this highly dynamic motor of urban development.

The book opens with an introduction by Jack Short, Secretary General of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport. He has brought urban transport and land use issues to the forefront of debate in this Think Tank.

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Introduction Jack Short Secretary General European Conference of Ministers of Transport Aviation is Europe's fastest growing transport mode, with long-run average annual traffic increases of over 6%. Following the horrific events of 11 September 2001, traffic went down for the first time in a decade. Despite this, the underlying trends are reasserting themselves, boosted by factors like the emergence and rapid growth of low-cost airlines. Indeed, the forecast that air traffic in Europe will double by 2015 remains a reasonable basis for policy formulation. Providing adequate airport capacity to deal with this traffic is a serious challenge. Capacity has been increasing, though at a slower rate than demand. This is not surprising, as airports bring dramatic changes to land use and have major adverse environmental effects. The assessment, planning and construction of new facilities is a controversial and increasingly lengthy process. Airports are no longer just airports, as the book strikingly observes. But what are they? Nodes of a new intermodal transport system for both people and goods? New cities, with shopping, hotels, conferences and a host of ancillary activities more or less loosely linked to aviation? New sprawling developments gobbling up precious land? Unlived-in new cities with serious congestion, access, noise and pollution problems? Dynamic centres of economic activity and growth at the heart of a network of high-speed links to other centres? To varying degrees airports are all of these things. Originally conceived and built as stand-alone facilities outside towns, they have changed and are changing beyond recognition. Now, in many airports most of the people are not taking a plane at all. Airports have become major centres of employment and sites for business contacts, as well as vital logistic and distribution centres. Much of this just happened without a clear planning framework, and these multifunctional airports have often been poorly integrated into regional and local transport plans, resulting in ongoing disputes with local authorities and residents and increasingly difficult access problems. As it is, the trip to the airport often lasts longer than the flight one will eventually take. Moving about within these vast complexes is frequently difficult and slow. An emerging issue concerns secondary airports, which are also growing fast, partly to cater for low-cost airlines, but posing their own problems of access and costs. In summary, there is a wide variety of policy challenges involving airports. These include strategic and development planning issues, providing adequate access, especially for public transport, serious problems of pricing and charging for the use of facilities and numerous local and wider environmental problems, all of which are of a particularly real and urgent kind. Indeed, airports pose some of the clearest practical challenges to achieving the right balance between the economic, social and environmental aims that sustainability demands. The specific challenge for airports to harness the positive developmental features and minimise the harmful and wasteful ones is at the heart of the broad debate on transport and its sustainability. This book shows concretely that there are new ideas on many of these subjects, and that different governments and regional and local authorities are grappling with the complex array of interacting issues. There is no one model for how airports can best be integrated into a coherent spatial planning framework, nor for how access to them and within them can best be provided. This book shows how some embrace the airport city concept warmly, while others eschew it. It shows how different planning and institutional frameworks need to be adapted to national and local circumstances. The integration of airports within a coherent framework of regional planning contains additional levels of complexity compared to traditional urban planning. This complexity arises especially in the number and variety of institutional actors involved, and bringing these together in a constructive spirit is one of the most difficult challenges. The book demonstrates that several lessons are emerging from the reflection that is under way. Perhaps the most important is the need to have a comprehensive regional framework for land use and transport planning which fully integrates airports and their development. Another is that, while it is undisputed that airports can bring economic benefits to an urban region, more needs to be done to mitigate the great and sudden pressures they place on existing infrastructures, on local facilities and on the environment. The trend, too, for airports to increase dramatically in area shows how new concepts in airport design are needed. It has become clear that airport access that is too heavily dependent on road transport brings additional problems and is often counterproductive. Additionally, it is not just for passengers that access to and within airports needs to be planned, since goods are becoming increasingly important. Finally, there are lessons for airports in terms of the siting of different services and facilities within the airport complex. Building train connections is of little use if the stops are not near the final destinations that people want. This stimulating book and the ideas and examples in it will contribute to a much needed reflection by national, regional and local land use and transport planners, as well as political actors and others involved in airport planning and design. Airports are vital parts of our modern fabric and their conception, planning, construction, expansion and operation need to be much better incorporated into our land use and transport policies at regional level. This book makes an important contribution to this process. In their work and beliefs, authors Michael and Mathis Güller represent a pragmatic and adaptable form of planning that takes account of the great variety of different local circumstances and the real needs of people. They have raised an issue of great import where developing new ideas and learning from them will be essential if we are to make progress towards our sustainability goals.