Environmental Impact Assessment for the third runway of the Munich Airport

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The Munich airport would like to build a third runway to cope with the estimated increase to 58.2 million passengers in 2025. The current area of the airport comprises 1,560 hectares, from which nearly 60% are green spaces. The planned runway should have a length of 4,000 meters and a width of 60 meters. The likely land use outside of the existing airport would be around 970 hectares.

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has already been done in 2006 and took a look at following sectors: Humans (health and well-being), animals (wild animals and their habitats), plants, biodiversity, soil, surface waters, groundwater, air, climate, landscape, cultural goods and possible interactions.

The main impacts would be on human settlements north and northeast of the airport because of the increasing air traffic noise during operation. «Attaching» can claim for compensations due to the increase of the continuous sound level. Additionally the habitat «Erdinger Moos» of wild animals would be affected due to the land consumption of the third runway, the noise during construction and operation and the lighting during the operation of the airport. The connectivity of the habitats would be interrupted and could hinder the migration and spread of animals and plant species.

Within the area of the planned runway is a monument, it would need a archaeological exploration before the constructions. In addition there would be a medium impact on the biodiversity in this area and on the soil. Apparently the overall appearance of the landscape would be changed too.

The airport endeavors to make its process transparent and to include the affected neighborhoods early in the planning process. It even is consent to pay 100 million Euros for compensation – without legal obligation. Nonetheless the citizens of Munich try together with NGOs to stop the process. They are collecting signatures and initiated a referendum which will be held on the 17.06.2012. At this day all citizen of Munich can vote for or against the third runway.

Resources (German), last accessed 07.02.2012:

Flughafen München (2006) Umweltverträglichkeitsstudie, http://www.dfld.de/Andere/MUC/ROV/umweltstudie_blasy.pdf

Flughafen München (without year) Dritte Start- und Landebahn, http://www.muc-ausbau.de/bahn3/index.jsp

Süddeutsche.de (2012) Flughafen München: Zehn Fakten, http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/freising/flughafen-muenchen-zehn-fakten-ein-prosit-auf-das-fernweh-1.1124700

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