Christmas Chaos LGW
T250,
Not sure which facts you mean. Actually, most uk airports are indeed built on floodplain. Some like LHR have involved very extensive river diversion and wetland drainage. Throughout the world a number of airports are built on made made islands. If you consider the hydrology of such an arrangement you would understand why they are not prone to flooding, which is in effect overspill from a watercourse. Islands with sufficient freeboard are not prone to flooding unless the surrounding land is at a higher level. The point of flood plane is that large areas can accommodate large volumes of relatively shallow water. Therefore wide flat areas are preferable to valleys which, as you correctly aver, are also prone to pockets of mist and fog. An estuarine location would potentially also suffer from this issue but no more frequently than existing airports in the SE. One of the advantages of a new build purpose designed solution is that you can plan to accommodate many of the natural threats such as flooding and adverse weather while also mitigating the impacts on the surrounding areas Consider Chep Lap Kok vs Kai Tak.
Last edited by Munnyspinner; 25th Dec 2013 at 18:29.