Re-MXP - Resilience against climate change

Re-MXP stands for Resilienza Malpensa, a project that is aimed precisely at improving the resilience of the Milan Malpensa airport to climate change and natural hazards. In particular, it was decided to act in parallel in improving the infrastructure in the event of torrential rains and earthquakes. To do this, work is being carried out on rainwater collection and disposal, on the other hand, an intelligent earthquake monitoring system is being installed following a five-year process of infrastructure modernization. 

THE PROJECT

The Action concerns the improvement of the resilience of the Milan Malpensa (MXP) airport, located on the TEN-T Rhine-Alpine and Mediterranean Corridors, against climate change and natural hazards through a five-year modernization process of this transport infrastructure. 

The airport resilience will be increased through the implementation of infrastructure upgrades: 

• Improvement of the drainage system for flooding risk mitigation. The main interventions, focused on five airport areas, are aimed at improving the pavement drainage system, upgrading some sections of the pipe network, constructing underground storage tanks to manage peak flows and building new infiltration wells. 
• Upgrades of Passenger Terminal T1 for seismic risk mitigation. Specific works will be carried out in six macro-areas to progressively upgrade the structures of Terminal 1 against earthquakes. The interventions include the improvement of resistance and/or ductility of elements or parts of the structure and the installation of anti-seismic devices such as Shock Transmitter Units. 

The project also provides the development of a smart monitoring system which will allow the real-time knowledge of infrastructural behaviour under operational and exceptional conditions. 

Sensors for managing both flooding and seismic risks will be deployed and a remote system to collect and process real-time data from the sensors installed will be designed. 

Indeed, the outputs from the smart monitoring system will help to optimise inspection and repair activities. 

FOCUS

Goals

• Reduction of the restrictions in operational flights and airport closures due to flooding 
• Prevention of negative consequence due to seismic incidents. 

Benefit

• Reduction in operating costs for the airport operator 
• Reduction in externalities (due to diverted traffic in case of airport disruption) - Time saving for passengers potentially affected. 
• Ensure infrastructure compliance with the national antiseismic construction regulations (Italian seismic code).