Building Resilience Through Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management at Airports

By bringing together operational expertise from the world's busiest airport with cutting-edge research capabilities, we're creating actionable solutions for airports worldwide to enhance their emergency preparedness. – Mr. David Bridges, Vice-President of Georgia Institute of Technology's Enterprise Innovation Institute, highlighting the importance of academic-industry collaboration.

Whether confronting hurricanes in the Caribbean, earthquakes in Central America, or winter storms in North America, we all benefit from understanding how peer airports manage crisis situations. – Jan Lennon, Executive Deputy General Manager of ATL, stressed that knowledge sharing between airports facing different regional challenges strengthens the entire airport ecosystem.

Ms. Estrella Merlos, Senior Policy Specialist from UNITAR highlighted during the opening remarks 

Disasters are a defining feature of the 21st century, and are having profound human consequences and economic impacts, with direct losses estimated at over $200 billion annually and over $2.3 trillion when cascading and ecosystem costs are taken into account. Building resilience is a fundamental pillar of sustainable development. This workshop aims to provide good practices in building resilient airports through planning, disaster preparedness and emergency response. 

The closing ceremony featured presentations of certificates by Mrs. Juli Golemi, Director of EI2 Global at Georgia Institute of Technology and Ms. Alrene Barr, Executive Director of International Affairs at ATL, recognizing participants' commitment to advancing airport safety and emergency preparedness standards.

UNITAR’s Airport and Economic Development Global Training Programme aims to support an interconnected network of resilient airport hubs capable of supporting communities during their most critical moments. Through continued collaboration and knowledge exchange, participating airports will be better positioned to fulfil their essential roles as economic engines and emergency response assets for their regions.