Adelaide Airport Irrigation Cooling Trial
3°C air temperature reduction · stormwater reuse · $1M+ annual airline fuel savings modelled
The trial showed that irrigation cools surface temperatures as effectively as pavement — demonstrating that maintaining vegetation cover at airports delivers both operational and temperature-reduction benefits at far lower cost than hard engineering interventions.
Adelaide Airport trialled stormwater irrigation of a 4-hectare airside area using an adjacent aquifer storage system, producing a greater than 3°C air temperature reduction on hot days compared to unirrigated areas. Projected at 200ha scale, airlines could save over $1m annually from maintained payloads and fuel savings during take-off and landing. Lucerne crop grown for additional revenue.
Climate drivers
Impacts
Adaptation measures
- Stormwater irrigation
- Lucerne crop cultivation
- Air temperature monitoring
- Aquifer storage and recovery
Assets affected
Investment
Trial cost: $52k capital; $2.4m for full 200ha scale-up
Band: Under £1m (trial)
Delivery period
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- Adelaide Airport Limited (AAL) is situated in a hot and dry landscape, the high air temperatures decrease air density, which can lead to several operational challenges. This includes reduced load capacity on aircrafts, increased fuel consumption during take-off and landing, higher energy use in cooling towers, dust generation and increased erosion . This places an increased strain on airline and airport services, impacting both employee and passenger experience, as well as flight efficiency.
- A trial was conducted at Adelaide Airport to test the effectiveness of irrigation of land in and around the airport to locally reduce high air temperatures .
- This trial collected and analysed projected data for both a base case (non-irrigated) and future option (200-hectares of irrigated land) to understand potential outcomes on air temperature and the financial and economic benefits of using irrigation to mitigate high temperatures . Additionally, the trial anticipated the feasibility of growing and harvesting a saleable crop on the irrigated land, with the profits potentially funding the irrigation process .
Ref: ID_14 · Adelaide Airport Irrigation Project · Curated & verified by HIVE
Applicable to UK airports in southern England facing increasing summer heatwave risks, particularly where stormwater storage infrastructure already exists. Dependent on land availability, water source access, and aviation safety compliance (bird strike management).
UK contexts
Applicable UK-wide
Transfer to other sectors (AI)