Risk archetypes for European airports: moving towards climate change adaptation

• Multi-hazard analysis is essential for critical infrastructure as it provides a comprehensive understanding of different climate-related risks and their potential impacts. • A multi-risk approach is vital for climate risk assessments in critical infrastructures, as it considers physical, economic, and social dimensions, enhancing the understanding of vulnerability and exposure. • Identifying climate risk archetypes can streamline decision-making for infrastructure management and support the development of effective adaptation pathways. • Climate risk archetypes facilitate the identification of analogous infrastructures, enabling shared insights for adaptation strategies. Critical infrastructures are potentially exposed elements to climate impacts, which implies consequences beyond the purely physical dimension, in the economic and social spheres. This study presents a multi-risk approach based on indicators that assesses multiple climate-related hazards, as well as the multiple dimensions of exposure and vulnerability, with global availability, climate change scenarios, and time horizons. Based on this approach, an archetype-based critical infrastructure classification is proposed, which serves as a framework for designing adaptation strategies for these infrastructures. These archetypes facilitate the characterization of the different risk components —hazard, exposure, and vulnerability—individually, while maintaining a holistic perspective. Statistical and machine learning techniques are applied to the identification of patterns in the indicators defining the dimensions of risk and that characterize the risk archetypes. As a case study, this methodology is applied to airport infrastructures across Europe, resulting in an archetype-based classification that identifies 23 climate risk archetypes for European airports. The resulting archetypes not only enable the identification of analogous airports from a climate risk perspective but also highlight the primary sources of risk, serving as a valuable guide for adaptation decision-making