THE LARGEST AIRPORTS IN THE WORLD V: DOES THE SIZE REALLY MATTER?

For sure that any time you have asked yourself: Does the size really matters? Well, I am going to answer your question if you are thinking about airports. In former posts I have made some measures of some of the biggest airports all around the world; you can look at these posts to see the maps of the airports:
1. Europe
2. North America
3. Asia-Australia
4. South America-Africa-Middle East

CLICK TO BROWSE THE INTERACTIVE MAP

Firstly I want to show the airports size´s rank (font: CityLines):

AIRPORT	AREA (ha)
Dallas Fort Worth	4360
Denver International Airport	4200
King Fahd International Airport	3410
Shanghai, Pudong	3350
París, Charles de Gaulle	3100
Madrid Barajas	3050
New International Bangkok Airport	2980
Chicago O´Hare	2610
Cairo International Airport (Wadi al Jandali)	2550
Beijing Internacional airport	2330
Washington-dulles	2255
Amsterdam, Schipol	2090
New Delhi, Indira Gandhi international airport	1770
Toronto Pearson	1660
Salt lake City	1635
Atlanta Airport	1625
New York, JFK	1525
Frankfurt Airport	1470
Tokyo, Haneda	1445
Dubai International Airport	1445
Roma Fiumicino	1395
Los Angeles International	1325
Kansas city	1290
Hong Kong	1285
Londres, Heathrow	1215
Barcelona, El Prat	950
Rio de Janeiro, Galeao International Airport	950
Moscu Sheremetyevo	875
Sao Paulo, Guarulhos International	855
Sydney airport	820
Mexico, Aeropuerto Internacional Ciudad de Mexico	685
Buenos Aires, Pistarini	670
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (Mumbai-Delhi)	575

This means that these 33 airports occupies the awesome area of 61.750 Ha that it is more or less Singapore´s size. The mean area for these airports is 1.871 Ha.

Secondly, I also going to show the passengers´ ranking, this is the following:

AIRPORT	PASSENGERS
Atlanta Airport	92365860
Beijing Internacional airport	77403668
Londres, Heathrow	69433565
Chicago O´Hare	66561023
Tokyo, Haneda	62263025
Los Angeles International	61848449
París, Charles de Gaulle	60970551
Dallas Fort Worth	57806152
Frankfurt Airport	56436255
Hong Kong	53314213
Denver International Airport	52699298
Dubai International Airport	50977960
Amsterdam, Schipol	49754910
Madrid Barajas	49644302
New International Bangkok Airport	47910744
New York, JFK	47854283
Shanghai, Pudong	41450211
Roma Fiumicino	37651222
Sydney airport	36022614
New Delhi, Indira Gandhi international airport	34729467
Barcelona, El Prat	34387597
Toronto Pearson	33434199
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (Mumbai-Delhi)	30439122
Sao Paulo, Guarulhos International	30371131
Mexico, Aeropuerto Internacional Ciudad de Mexico	26368861
Washington-dulles	23056291
Moscu Sheremetyevo	22555309
Salt lake City	20440913
Cairo International Airport (Wadi al Jandali)	16148480
Rio de Janeiro, Galeao International Airport	15184350
Kansas city	10469892
Buenos Aires, Pistarini	8786807
King Fahd International Airport	5267000

It is also amazing that the total amount of people that have used these 33 airports in 2011 is 1.384.007.724 (font Wikipedia). This amount of people is similar to China´s population, wow!

But the real question in this post is if size really matters for air traffic and airport management. Well, I think that if we compare the size of the airports with the amount of people that uses each airport we will have some idea about it. Watch the table below:

AIRPORT	PAX/AREA
Londres, Heathrow	57146,967
Atlanta Airport	56840,529
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (Mumbai-Delhi)	52937,603
Los Angeles International	46678,075
Sydney airport	43930,017
Tokyo, Haneda	43088,599
Hong Kong	41489,66
Mexico, Aeropuerto Internacional Ciudad de Mexico	38494,688
Frankfurt Airport	38392,01
Barcelona, El Prat	36197,471
Sao Paulo, Guarulhos International	35521,791
Dubai International Airport	35278,865
Beijing Internacional airport	33220,458
New York, JFK	31379,858
Roma Fiumicino	26990,123
Moscu Sheremetyevo	25777,496
Chicago O´Hare	25502,308
Amsterdam, Schipol	23806,177
Toronto Pearson	20141,084
París, Charles de Gaulle	19667,92
New Delhi, Indira Gandhi international airport	19621,168
Madrid Barajas	16276,82
New International Bangkok Airport	16077,431
Rio de Janeiro, Galeao International Airport	15983,526
Dallas Fort Worth	13258,292
Buenos Aires, Pistarini	13114,637
Denver International Airport	12547,452
Salt lake City	12502,087
Shanghai, Pudong	12373,197
Washington-dulles	10224,519
Kansas city	8116,1953
Cairo International Airport (Wadi al Jandali)	6332,7373
King Fahd International Airport	1544,5748

In this case we can see the incredible variation of the ratio PAX/AREA. From the most efficient airport, that is London Heathrow with 57.147 passengers managed per Hectare, to the least efficient airport, that is King Fahd International Airport with 1.545 passengers managed in 1 Hectare, there is a difference of 37 times more efficiency for London Heathrow.

Well, also considering that the size ratio between the biggest and the smallest of these airports (Dallas Fort Worth vs Chhatrapati Shivaji International) is 7,5 times, we can see how there is a lack of planning & management in the soil occupation of these infrastructures.

Considering the importance of keeping natural soils, I think this example is pretty clear about how infrastructures can be more or less sustainable on soil occupation.

DOWNLOAD THE KMZ FILE WITH THE AIRPORT´S INFO!

SMART CITIZEN, BUILDING THE SMART CITY THROUGH CROWDFUNDING

I want to stop talking about airports for a while and continue talking about smart cities. In former posts I have talked about Smart Cities and I have said that it is important that citizens have to be the new center of decision of smart citizens. I have also supported that technology does not have to be the next barrier or the next excuse to oust citizens from public decisions.

In this City Lines post I also want to make you know this brilliant initiative to build our Smart Cities

you also have an english subtitled version here

 

You can see how this initiative goes one step beyond of what I said before and tries to build the smart city in a collaborative way. If we work with open source, open hardware solutions and collaborative people it is posible to have low cost solutions to build this smart cities that sometimes sound really odd for citizens. This is a brilliant idea that puts the citizen in the middle of the city construction and give us the tools to start making our own smart city.

Beyond this initiative it is also amazing how crowdfunding platforms as Goteo are arising in the Web. This kind of tools are already a real way to find the funds that governments are not able to provide to this kind of start up initiatives.

You can support Smart Citizen initiative here!

THE LARGEST AIRPORTS IN THE WORLD IV: SOUTH AMERICA-AFRICA-MIDDLE EAST

In the former post of the airport size serial I have published information about the size of the European airports, the North American airports and the Asian & Australian airports. In this post I am going to share the information about the South American, African and Middle East airports. (lately I have posted a resume about the efficiency of airports’ land use)

I expect that you are enjoying the information!

Sao Paulo Guarulhos International Airport (Brasil): 855Ha

Rio de Janeiro Galeao International Airport (Brasil): 950 Ha

Buenos Aires Pistarini International Airport (Argentina): 670 Ha

Mexico City International Airport Ciudad de México (Mexico): 685 Ha

King Fahd International Airport (Saudi Arabia): 3410Ha

Dubai International Airport (United Arab Emirates): 1445 Ha

Cairo Wadi al Jandali International Airport (Egypt): 2550 Ha

THE LARGEST AIRPORTS IN THE WORLD III: ASIA-AUSTRALIA

In this post set about the size of the size of the largest airports in the world, I have already published the size of the European airports and the size of the North American airports. I will also publish the South American, African and Middle East airports in the next post (lately I have posted a resume about the efficiency of airports’ land use). Now it is the time for the Asian and Australian airports.

Here you have the information!

Tokyo Haneda International Airport (Japan): 1445 Ha

Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok International Airport (China): 1285 Ha

Shanghai Pudong International Airport (China): 3350 Ha

Beijing Internacional Airport (China): 2330 Ha

Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (India): 575 Ha

New Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (India): 1770 Ha

Bangkok New International Airport (Thailand): 2980 Ha

Sydney International Airport (Australia): 820 Ha

THE LARGEST AIRPORTS IN THE WORLD II: NORTH AMERICA

In the last post I published the size of the largest airports of Europe; in the two former posts I am going to publish the size of the largest airports of Asia-Australia and South America-Africa-Middle East (lately I have posted a resume about the efficiency of airports’ land use). In this post it is time for the North American airports!

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (USA): 1625 Ha

New York JFK International Airport (USA): 1525 Ha

Chicago O´Hare International Airport (USA): 2610 Ha

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (USA): 4360 Ha

Los Angeles International Airport (USA): 1325 Ha

 Denver International Airport (USA): 4200 Ha

Toronto Pearson International Airport (Canada): 1660 Ha

I have measured some new North American airports!

Washington-Dulles International Airport (USA): 2255 Ha

Kansas City International Airport (USA): 1290 Ha

Salt Lake City International Airport (USA): 1635 Ha

Moses Lake Washington Grant County International Airport (USA): 1655 Ha

THE LARGEST AIRPORTS IN THE WORLD I: EUROPE

The other day I read a post (and I republished it in CityLines Facebook page) about the largest airports in the world, it talked about the number of people passing through them each year. When I was reading I thought, well, actually I have not ever read about the size of the largest airports in the world, so I decided to measure them by myself, and I realized that it was pretty interesting.

I just took the Google Earth tool to define the limit of the airports by photo interpretation. Then I used the Esri free application for iPad to measure the airport polygons. I measured the airports that I supposed that were the biggest in every continent. Now, I am going to publish the largest airports in 4 different posts. The order of publication will be related with the continent of the airports:

1. Europe
2. North America
3. Asia-Australia
4. South America-Africa-Middle East

(lately I have posted a resume about the efficiency of airports’ land use). So here you have the first part of the Airports serial, you can see their photo and size!

Madrid Barajas International Airport (Spain): 3050 Ha

Barcelona El Prat International Airport (Spain): 950 Ha

London Heathrow International Airport (UK): 1215 Ha

Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport (France): 3100 Ha

Amsterdam Schiphol International Airport (The Netherlands): 2380 Ha

Thanks to Erik Griswold to tell me that I forgot “Polderbaan” airstrip (Runway 36L/18R). Map & size figure are corrected

Frankfurt International Airport (Germany): 1470 Ha

Roma Fiumicino International Airport (Italy): 1395 Ha

Moscu Sheremetyevo International Airport (Russia): 875 Ha

SMART CITIES VS SMARTER CITIES (or Tron paradox)

Somehow, when somebody talks to me about smart cities I start thinking about all the movies of the 80´s that I used to watch in my childhood, and I remember some futuristic cities and situations. Of all these movies, the strongest memory I have is from Tron, (the classical one, of course) with the red and blue motorbikes racing for their lives. Wow, it was amazing thinking about what the technology would provide!!

 

Tron was about a “supermachine” that controlled people´s memories and lives, and there was a character (the good one) that was trying to recover people´s lives. Actually, smart cities could have some similarities with that script, and I will explain.

I really agree with ICTs and other new technologies as a tool to improve our life quality and to achieve a better efficiency in the use of natural resources. I also think that it is absolutely necessary to invest in ICTs in our forthcoming smart cities, because nowadays´ civil engineering know-how is based on 19^th and 20^th century technologies.

But on the other hand, all these improvements cannot be presented as a new enlightened despotism ruled by Tron´s “supermachines”. Smart cities should not be ruled by new technocrat elites who know the performance of the new technologies and who tells us what machines “think” that are better for cities. Those could be smart cities, but definitely they are not smarter cities.

I think that technologists have to be the facilitators to get ICTs closer to citizens. Citizens have to be the new center of decision of smart cities and citizens have to be educated to consider social, environmental and economic criteria in their decisions. I also think that we have enough new ways of data visualization, communication media and social networks to be effective enough in this thrilling process of educating people and bringing smart cities (sorry, smarter cities) closer to citizens.

The next episode in your city!