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THEA MEASURE BUSINESS WHITE CASE PAPER FOR DronesWhat City in PlannersEnergy Need to OperationsKnow about Drones Contributed by: John Michael LaSalle
MEASURE.COM 01 The Case for What City Planners Need to Know About Drones Drones in Energy Operations
Introduction
Changes in federal regulations and technology advances are poised to dramatically increase the impact of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), typically referred to as drones, in cities. In order to effectively shape the ubiquitous adoption of drones in cities, planners will need to be equipped to understand the technology, use cases, and implications. UAS technology has been delivering value and improving safety in commercial and industrial applications for several years, but properly managing its integration into cities in a way that ensures positive impacts on residents will be crucial in the coming years.
Ben Green, a PhD Candidate and researcher at Harvard sums up the challenge well: “The most important task for a city is not to predict the future of technology and hope for the best—it is to shape its own future through thoughtful use of technology.”1
This issue is urgent now because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has begun loosening several regulatory restrictions that have severely limited commercial UAS operations in cities at the same time that Google, Amazon, and UPS have begun pilot programs for drone deliveries. While not as imminent, the introduction of air taxis, typically referred to by the term urban air mobility (UAM), into urban skyways will also present major new challenges for planners.
This paper is intended to provide someone with a background in city planning who is unfamiliar with manned or unmanned aviation an introduction to the technology, policies, and industries shaping this new field. It will address drone technology, the current regulatory framework, and upcoming regulatory changes. It will also give a broad overview of the most common industries using drones and what some of the implications for planners are. Lastly, it will offer a preliminary suggestion of tools available to planners to manage drones in urban settings. While not a comprehensive dive into any of the covered topics, it will provide enough familiarity with the issues and terminology to enable readers to further engage on these topics independently.
1 https://smartenoughcity.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/8dthlkrx/branch/3?from=7303&to=7474 MEASURE.COM 02 The Case for What City Planners Need to Know About Drones Drones in Energy Operations
01 Drone Technology 04
02 Regulatory Environment 08
03 Industries and Use Cases 11
04 Conclusion 16
MEASURE.COM TABLE OF CONTENTS03 What City Planners Need to Know About Drones
01 DRONE TECHNOLOGY
UAS come in a variety of sizes and aircraft types. UAS are almost exclusively powered by The basic categories are multi-rotor, fixed-wing, batteries. They typically have rechargeable and a hybrid, colloquially referred to as vertical batteries that provide 20-60 minutes of flight takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. time and can be swapped out so that the aircraft can be back in the air within a few Multi-rotors are by far the dominant aircraft minutes, even if the batteries can take several type. The dominant drone manufacturer, DJI, hours to fully recharge. had 74% of the global commercial market share in 2018 and only manufactures multi- DRONE TYPES rotor aircraft.2 Multi-rotors are similar to a helicopter, but with four or more rotors. They have superior maneuverability and can hover in place. Fixed-wing aircraft fly like planes and have much longer flight times than multi-rotors but need more room to turn and smooth open areas for take off and landing or complex launch and recovery devices such as catapults and skyhooks. VTOL, though technically including Multirotor: DJI Phantom 4 Pro multi-rotors and helicopters, typically are multi- rotors that also have some type of wings letting them combine the flight characteristics of multi- rotors and fixed-wing aircraft. They are primarily being developed for UAM or logistics because they benefit from the ability to take off and land like a multi-rotor but have higher speeds and
longer ranges like a fixed-wing aircraft. Fixed-wing: eBee by SenseFly See Figure 1.1 for a list of drone recommendations.
Commercial UAS in the US almost exclusively weigh less than 55 pounds to be covered under the FAA’s Part 107 regulations, and most weigh significantly less than that. The popular DJI M210, a higher-end multirotor, weighs just over 3 10 pounds and the fixed-wing SenseFly eBee X tops out at 3.1 pounds.4 VTOL: UT-VF12E
2 https://thedronegirl.com/2018/09/18/dji-market-share/ 3 https://www.dji.com/matrice-200-series-v2/info#specs 4 MEASURE.COM https://www.sensefly.com/drone/ebee-x-fixed-wing-drone/ 04 The Case for What Need to Know About Drones DronesCity in Planners Energy Operations
01 DRONE TECHNOLOGY
Figure 1.1 - Drone Hardware Recommendations
Drone Make & Style Specs Best For Notes Model
Good for tactical situational Max Flight Time: awareness for emergency response and basic small- DJI Mavic 31 min scale mapping for most Multirotor All purpose Pro 2 construction sites as well as Wind Speed distribution line inspections Resistance: 10 m/s due to its portability, low price point, and ease of use.
Max Flight Time: The workhorse in the 27 min industry; rugged and field- DJI Inspire 2 Multirotor All purpose tested. Excellent all-purpose Wind Speed drone. Resistance: 10 m/s
Max Flight Time: Dual gimbal payload allows 38 min for simultaneous thermal DJI M210 Multirotor All purpose and RGB data collection. Wind Resistance: Preferred platform for police 12 m/s and fire use.
Lacks maneuverability Max Flight Time: of multirotors, but has Large-scale senseFly 50 min superior endurance. Best Fixed-wing inspections choice for large-scale eBee Wind Resistance: & mapping mapping missions in 12 m/s mining, solar, agriculture, and large construction sites.
DRONE EQUIPMENT
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01 DRONE TECHNOLOGY
Commercial drones support several types of sensors. By far the most common is a camera that takes geolocated photos. The images themselves are identical to what you can take with a DSLR digital camera or a smart phone, but the geolocation allows you to convert them to GIS point data, or a grid of overlapping photos can be processed into a variety of secondary data products. Other common types of sensors that are commercially available include multispectral cameras that can measure plant heath, thermal infrared cameras that can be used for a variety of inspection types, and LiDAR (laser scanning) for high-resolution point clouds.
See a list of sensor recommendations in Figure 1.2.
There are also almost limitless custom possibilities such as gas detectors, mobile network signal strength testing, and microwave transmission testing.
MEASURE.COM 06 The Case for What Need to Know About Drones DronesCity in Planners Energy Operations
01 DRONE TECHNOLOGY
Figure 1.2 - Sensor Recommendations
Sensor Type Compatibility Functions Verticals
Inspire 2, M200 Zenmuse X45 RGB RGB mapping Solar series
Primary fleet RGB Inspire 2, M200 payload, High-res Solar, Zenmuse X5S RGB series inspection, RGB Wind, T&D mapping
Inspire 2, M200 Zenmuse X7 RGB Cinematography Media series
Inspire 1, M600, IR Mapping, Solar, T&D, Zenmuse XT-R Infrared M200 series Surveillance Energy
M600, M200 Live inspection, Public Zenmuse Z30 RGB series Surveillance safety
SenseFly eBee, eBee+, eBee RGB IR mapping Solar S.O.D.A. X
SenseFly Infrared eBee, eBee+ IR mapping Solar Thermomap
SenseFly Multi- eBee, eBee+ NDVI mapping Agriculture Sequoia spectral
DRONE EQUIPMENT
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02 REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT
REGULATORY FRAMEWORK Certificate. Certification only requires taking a written test on UAS regulations, airspace Commercial UAS activity is regulated by the classification, weather, and additional aviation FAA and local laws. Changes to the current operations knowledge. Any aircraft being flown regulatory framework are being tested and by a certificated pilot must also be registered unmanned traffic management (UTM) systems with the FAA. are under development. UAS operations fall primarily under the jurisdiction of the FAA, In addition to licensing, Part 107 has restrictions which regulates all aspects of commercial on when, where, and how far a drone can fly: and private aviation in the United States. The • The pilot must always maintain visual line of federal rule Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations sight on the aircraft and UAS are not allowed Part 107 governs commercial operations of small to fly at night or when visibility is below 3 UAS weighing less than 55 pounds.5 Recreational miles. drone use is governed separately but the restrictions are largely aligned with Part 107.6 • The aircraft cannot fly above 400 feet above the ground, though if the aircraft is flying In addition to the FAA, some other agencies and over a structure the limit rises to 400 feet local governments have instituted restrictions. above the top of the structure. The National Parks Service has banned any UAS flights over any land or water they manage.7 New • Flights are also not allowed over people or York City has banned all drone flights within city moving vehicles unless they are under a limits except at designated model aircraft fields.8 covered structure such as a sidewalk shed. Federal preemption of state and local drone The restrictions on flights laws, building on the precedent of federal preemption in aviation, limits the scope of state over people and vehicles and local laws, though those exact limits have have limited the urban use not been established by congress or the courts yet. A core argument against local laws is that of UAS because in practice it increases complexity and will slow down the they block flight over commercial adoption of drones. In fact, several streets or other publicly states have passed legislation preventing localities from enacting more restritive drone accessible spaces. laws.9
Part 107 is the most important law regulating Controlled areas such as construction sites UAS activity in the United States. To fly under have been the exception. Sidewalk overhead Part 107, the pilot must have a Remote Pilot protection, for example, makes it possible to do
5 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=8f06da265d345603662d8b06bbde6e75&mc=true&node=pt14.2.107&rgn=div5) 6 https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational_fliers/ 7 https://www.nps.gov/articles/unmanned-aircraft-in-the-national-parks.html 8 https://statedronelaw.com/state/new-york/ 9 http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/529178/Aviation/Drone+Preemption+Federal+Vs+State+Power+To+Regulate+Drones MEASURE.COM 08 What City Planners Need to Know About Drones
02 REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT
a façade inspection while people continue to use Working with the FAA the sidewalk below. Some airspace authorizations have been automated by the FAA, but other waivers have a more involved process. The FAA set up a system, the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC), to provide automated authorizations for flights within controlled airspace around airports. LAANC uses a grid system with specific flight ceilings for each grid cell low enough to avoid interference with airport flight patterns to automatically authorize flights below that ceiling.10 The FAA also issues waivers for other Part 107 operational restrictions, but
Part 107 licensed pilots in hands-on training these can have months-long review periods and can be incredibly difficult to obtain, depending 11 Part 107 also restricts the airspace classifications on which restrictions are being waived. Some UAS can fly in. All airspace in the United States notable waivers the FAA has issues to date is classified into A, B, C, D, E, and G classes. include one for CNN to perform flights over 12 Class A begins at 18,000 feet above Mean Sea people, or the University of Alaska Fairbanks 13 Level, so it is not relevant to commercial drones. for flights beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). Classes B-E are all controlled by air traffic control Companies aiming to use drones for deliveries (ATC), primarily near airports, while class G is have begun applying for Part 135 certification, uncontrolled. Part 107 allows flights in class G rather than operating under Part 107. Delivery by default, but B, C, D, and E require permission companies are pursuing Part 135 certification from ATC. In addition to the permanent because it governs commuter and on-demand airspace classifications, there are Temporary commercial flights including freight up to 7,500 Flight Restrictions (TFR) that the FAA issues to pounds and has fewer flight restrictions than temporarily close airspace. TFRs can be issued Part 107. Alphabet’s subsidiary Wing Aviation, for situations such as large sporting events, Amazon, and UPS have applied to operate presidential travel, or first responder activity under Part 135.14 Only Wing has received their after disasters. certification to date.15
10 https://www.faa.gov/uas/programs_partnerships/data_exchange/ 11 https://www.faa.gov/uas/commercial_operators/part_107_waivers/ 12 http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2017/10/18/cnn-receives-breakthrough-part-107-waiver-for-operations-over-people/ 13 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-faa-drones/first-u-s-faa-approved-beyond-line-of-sight-drone-flight-completed 14 http://www.digitaljournal.com/business/amazon-requests-faa-approval-for-delivery-drone-plans/article/555566, https:// www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-transport/2019-07-24/ups-applies-part-135-certificate-drone-deliveries 15 https://www.npr.org/2019/04/23/716360818/faa-certifies-googles-wing-drone-delivery-company-to-operate-as-an-airline MEASURE.COM 09 What City Planners Need to Know About Drones
02 REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT
Regulatory Changes It is developing a system that could combine manned, unmanned, and autonomous aircraft The FAA and US Department of Transportation with a high density of operations. NASA is (USDOT) has established a pilot program to test working on demonstrating a possible future relaxed UAS flight restrictions and is undergoing UTM system through four Technology a major air traffic control (ATC) modernization Capability Level (TCL) exercises, each with effort to increase the national airspace’s (NAS) increasing complexity. The research has moved capacity and prepare for increased unmanned towards operations over increasingly populated air traffic. The UAS Integration Pilot Program, areas, and more complex operations and started in 2017, established 8 test sites with local interactions between UAS. Some of the major partners where the FAA is testing relaxed Part capabilities being tested have been dynamically 107 restrictions.16 Two of the test sites are run managing airspace in response to traffic and by cities, San Diego and Reno, which are focused weather and managing vehicle spacing and on border surveillance and food delivery, trajectories.18 and emergency medical supplies delivery, respectively. NASA’s TCL4 tests, which finished in August 2019, were specifically focused on urban areas and The FAA is also in the midst of a major ATC the additional challenges those can bring. Two of modernization effort called NextGen. NextGen is those concerns are wind and GPS denial. Wind a collection of new technologies and procedures is a major concern, since tall buildings redirect aimed at increasing the capacity of the NAS. wind over and around themselves, and can Some of the major changes include moving to concentrate it into wind tunnels. Buildings also satellite navigation rather than ground-based block and distort the GPS signals drones use to visual aids, and a data communications system navigate.19 rather than radio-based voice communications. The data communication system, called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), will enable machine to machine communication about location, altitude, direction, and speed.17 This is a major first step to allowing autonomous UAS and manned aircraft communicate and deconflict flight paths.
In addition to the FAA’s work, NASA is researching UAS Traffic Management (UTM) systems and technology for low altitude flight.
16 https://www.faa.gov/uas/programs_partnerships/integration_pilot_program/ 17 https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/how_nextgen_works/new_technology/ 18 https://utm.arc.nasa.gov/index.shtml 19 https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/big-city-life-awaits-drones-in-final-year-of-nasa-research/ MEASURE.COM 010 What City Planners Need to Know About Drones
03 INDUSTRIES AND USE CASES
The major commercial uses for UAS in cities and time-stamped documentation and has more are media, building and equipment inspections, flexibility in positioning than most alternatives. mapping, law enforcement and public safety, While any visual inspection could potentially be logistics, and urban air mobility. Drones have also performed using a drone, applications where been widely adopted in the oil and gas industry they have been most widely adopted include for inspections, wind turbine inspections, and transmission and distribution lines, roofs, in agriculture to monitor crop health. They façades, and solar array inspections. Depending are being utilized by private companies and on the camera, lens, and distance, images can governments and adoption is growing quickly. be high enough resolution to identify features as Some drone use cases can benefit planners small as several millimeters. directly and it is important to have at least a For transmission and distribution lines, using basic familiarity with all of the uses driving UAS UAS eliminates the need for linemen to climb activity in urban airspace. utility poles to inspect for damage, freeing the highly skilled linemen to focus on just the Media poles that have damage. Teams will benefit Media and film were the first industry to widely from a higher level of detail - missing pins, rust, adopt UAS because of the direct benefits of more damaged insulators - compared to typical ground accessible and less expensive aerial footage. A or helicopter patrols, and thermal imagery can drone is simply another way to put a camera into quickly identify hot spots. The more detailed and the desired location but can be easier to use or accurate data delivered by a drone inspection lower cost than a crane or helicopter. Measure can enable companies to proactively identify has shown the benefits for news media in footage more defecs, which could lead to fewer power captured during Hurricane Harvey in Texas. Pilots outages and reduced repair costs. were able to broadcast llive footage without the risk of sending a manned news helicopter into the air.20
Inspections
One of the most significant uses for drones is in inspections, where they can eliminate or reduce hazardous person-hours on elevated structures. The benefits of using a drone for inspections include reduced risk, improved speed, and improved documentation. In addition to risk reduction, the high-resolution digital cameras T&D inspection in Ohio. paired with the drone’s GPS produces geolocated
20 https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/broadcasters-harvey-coverage-aided-by-measure-drone-services MEASURE.COM 011 What City Planners Need to Know About Drones
03 INDUSTRIES AND USE CASES
The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction than manually checking every panel or accepting (AEC) industry use drones to document degraded performance if inspections are cost- construction and inspect existing buildings. prohibitive. Inspections can be performed using drones Inspections pose relatively few challenges equipped with visual RGB cameras and thermal for planners since they typically take place in infrared cameras. Under the right environmental controlled environments and replace in-person conditions, a thermal camera can detect water- work while reducing the risk of injuries. Privacy saturated insulation in roofs and air leaks can be a concern in dense areas. A drone in façades. This can be done with handheld inspecting a façade can turn its camera around thermal cameras as well, but the drone provides to look directly into adjacent buildings or down a wider field of view and doesn’t require the into neighboring backyards. A mitigating factor inspector to physically access the roof being in these cases is that the alternative is workers inspected – reducing risk. RGB cameras can accessing the same locations on a platform or document conditions during construction or for scaffolding, though that can still be disconcerting maintenance and operations. Though the most as anyone who has been in a tall building when common data outputs are photos and videos, the windows are being cleaned can attest. Roof 3D models created using drone photogrammetry inspections in lower-density residential areas can are also used in historic preservation. 21 be more problematic because they can look into backyards and are higher and potentially more noticeable than an inspector walking on the roof would be.
Mapping
Mapping is the application that could have the most utility for planners and has been the most restricted in urban areas by the Part 107 restrictions on flights over people and moving Drone shot of construction site. vehicles. Mapping using UAS is very similar to
using helicopters, planes, or satellites since they Thermal cameras mounted on UAS dramatically use similar sensors, but differ in resolution, speed up inspections of solar arrays mounted on cost, timeliness, and the scale of area that can either roofs or the ground. Solar panels that are be captured. UAS orthomosaics function like not functioning at full capacity heat up more than extremely high-resolution satellite imagery. The the surrounding panels, making them easy to ground sampling distance (GSD), the distance identify in thermal images. This helps technicians between the centers of adjacent pixels, can be to target just panels that maintenance rather
21 MEASURE.COM https://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/embracing-reality-modeling-for-historic-preservation_o 012 What City Planners Need to Know About Drones
03 INDUSTRIES AND USE CASES
less than 1 cm, in comparison to freely available for Normalized Vegetation Differential Index Landsat satellite imagery, which has a GSD of (NDVI) analysis to detect the presence and health 3,000 cm, 22 or Planet, a private company which of vegetation. Drone data can be turned into as- sells 72 cm data. 23 The tradeoff with the higher built CAD drawings using either point clouds or resolution of UAS data is that it is more difficult orthomosaics. to capture large areas because of drone’s slower speeds and shorter flight times, even leaving Law Enforcement and First Responders aside Part 107 restrictions. First responders, including police and firefighters, use drones for surveillance and situational awareness using visual RGB or thermal cameras. Thermal cameras can show firefighters hotspots in buildings before they are visible with the naked eye, and police use them to see people at night. UAS provide a portable and quick way to get a camera in the air without needing to rely on fixed cameras or expensive helicopters. The use of cameras on UAS comes with the same concerns
Orthomosaic contour map. about surveillance, privacy, and equitable enforcement that any use of cameras in public
space has with the additional consideration that Mapping can be done using either cameras since UAS are mobile they may be deployed and photogrammetry or LiDAR. LiDAR uses anywhere without prior warning or consultation. lasers to measure the distance from the sensor
to surrounding objects and is well suited for The Los Angeles Police Department began a collecting 3D data that includes vegetation and drone program in 2017 despite widespread the ground beneath it, as well as small features opposition by the public. The stated purpose for like powerlines. Cameras, using photogrammetry, the drones is to provide situational awareness can also produce 3D data in the form of during events like mass shootings and the point clouds or mesh models, raster digital program has restrictions on when and how the surface models (DSM) and 2D orthomosaics. drones can be used. However, public opposition Orthomosaic images are composite images centered on fears of mission creep and distrust that have their perspectives corrected and are that police would maintain their self-imposed stitched together to create a seamless top-down restrictions. The New York City Fire Department, image that is geolocated. Multispectral cameras also began using drones in 2017.24 Their first use collect the data needed to create orthomosaics was to provide a live video stream of firefighters
22 https://www.usgs.gov/centers/eros/science/usgs-eros-archive-landsat-archives-landsat-4-5-tm-level-2-data-products- surface?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects 23 https://www.planet.com/products/monitoring/ 24 MEASURE.COM https://www1.nyc.gov/site/fdny/news/fa1517/fdny-launches-drone-the-first-time-respond-fire-the-bronx#/0 013 What City Planners Need to Know About Drones
03 INDUSTRIES AND USE CASES
working on a roof to provide better situational use of drones since Jeff Bezos first teased awareness for the Incident Commander on the the idea in 2013.26 The FAA issued the first ground.25 Police and first responders’ use of certification for commercial drone deliveries to drones highlights the privacy concerns inher- Wing Aviation, an Alphabet subsidiary in April ent in the technology, especially when images 2019. Other countries have moved much faster or video are stored. Drone use by law enforce- with drone deliveries, notably in Rwanda where ment comes with the greatest privacy concerns. the government partnered with Zipline to deliver Beyond privacy, drone use by first responders medical supplies starting in 2016. In Switzerland, needs to avoid conflict with manned emergency the Swiss Post has been using drones to move response aircraft. Manned aircraft, whether they lab samples between hospitals since 2017, are fighting fires, performing search and rescue, though the program has been suspended several or medevac have priority. times after crashes.27
Due to their small size, even the most ambitious vision for delivery drones see them as a specialized tool for small, high value and high urgency deliveries. In addition to time-sensitive medical supplies as in Rwanda and Switzerland, other initial tests in Australia have focused on food delivery.28
Urban Air Mobility
Drone view of firefighting. Urban Air Mobility (UAM), or air taxis, promise to have major impacts on cities given new technological advances. Aircraft concepts vary, Drones are too small to be visible to pilots, but but the most common are VTOL that carry 4-5 large enough to cause catastrophic damage in people and a pilot. Sometimes UAM is used to a collision, making it incumbent on the drone refer to delivery drones as well as intra-urban operators to avoid other aircraft. Firefighting flights carrying people, but this is less common aircraft have been grounded repeatedly because than it solely referring to passenger flights. of unauthorized drones near wildfires in the last UAM flights will begin and end at vertiports, the several years. industry term for the assemblage of landing Logistics pads, charging infrastructure, and passenger facilities needed to service UAM aircraft. The Drone deliveries have become the most hyped combination of ATC restrictions, infrastructure
25 https://ein.az.gov/emergency-information/emergency-bulletin/coldwater-fire-firefighters-spot-drone-halts-air-operations 26 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-unveils-futuristic-plan-delivery-by-drone/ 27 https://www.flyzipline.com/impact/ 28 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49165706 MEASURE.COM 014 What City Planners Need to Know About Drones
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requirements, and travel demand make it almost report identifies urbanization and de-congestion certain that UAM will serve fixed facilities, rather policies as long-term challenges to UAM adoption than anywhere to anywhere travel. since its value rests on a high willingness to pay to avoid congested surface transportation (ibid., UAM is expected to unfold in three stages char- 7). acterized by NASA as emergent, early expanded, and mature UAM operations (Thipphavong et al. There are several large hurdles UAM must clear 2018, 3). Emergent UAM operations will have few initially and to expand. Safety, both for passen- flights along fixed routes, most likely with one gers and for residents of the cities aircraft are fly- endpoint at an airport that already has the infra- ing over is the primary concern and basis for the structure to support the aircraft. Early Expanded FAA’s certification process that all UAM aircraft UAM operations will feature a higher tempo of will need to operate in the United States (Booz flights and a growing, but still limited, network Allen Hamilton 2018, 27). of vertiports. Mature UAM operations will be characterized by a high density of vertiports and The construction of vertiport infrastructure is flights. The same NASA study noted that mature another major challenge. The existing facilities UAM operations would feature an order of mag- most similar to vertiports are helipads, which nitude greater numbers of aircraft then the NAS provides a glimpse into the regulatory hurdles currently supports, highlighting the importance that construction of vertiports will face. Helipads of NextGen and NASA’s UTM research (Thip- are regulated by many layers of government. For phavong et al. 2018, 3). example, to construct a new helipad in Los Angeles requires an operating permit from Despite the excitement for UAM to make fly- Caltrans1 and Los Angeles County requires it to ing cars accessible to the general public, it will be built following the California Building Code.29 remain a niche, luxury market for the foreseeable However, the City of Los Angeles requires emer- future. Booz Allen Hamilton, in a report com- gency landing pads on all buildings classified missioned by NASA, found that when taking into as High Rise Buildings which are exempt from account constraints such as willingness to pay Caltrans permitting, but these cannot be used for time-saving, infrastructure availability and for non-emergency flights.30 capacity, likely safety and noise restrictions, and weather constraints, there would be demand for Another concern is noise – public opposition 55,000 daily trips in the United States, or 0.1% of to increased noise is identified as a concern by all work trips at an average cost of over $45 per Booz Allen Hamilton and has been a limiting trip (Booz Allen Hamilton 2018, 97). They also factor for passenger helicopter flights (Booz Allen note that demand for trips that take less than Hamilton 2018, 97). 30 minutes using existing ground transportation is virtually non-existent (ibid., 96). The same
29 https://dot.ca.gov/programs/aeronautics/heliport-permits 30 https://www.fire.lacounty.gov/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/RooftopHeilportsRequirementSheet.pdf MEASURE.COM 015 What City Planners Need to Know About Drones
CONCLUSION
UAS encompass a wide variety of aircraft technology, industries, and uses. Ranging from small multi-rotors used in inspection, fixed-wings for large scale mapping, to larger passenger aircraft, drones take a variety of forms to meet specific needs.
Upcoming changes in regulations, air traffic control, and unmanned traffic management systems promise to greatly expand the envelope of drone operations.
A variety of industries are using drones including media and inspections. Mapping with drones will become a feasible alternative to satellite, plane, or helicopter mapping with less restrictive regulations. Law enforcement and first responders’ use of drones presents thorny surveillance and privacy concerns. The two most hyped uses for drones, logistics and air-taxis will be dependent on planners helping to integrate them into cities if they hope to expand beyond small pilot projects. As drones become more integrated into cities, planners’ roles in regulating their use so that they can realize their positive potential without possible negative impacts on privacy and safety will be essential.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Booz Allen Hamilton. 2018. Urban Air Mobility Market Study https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20190001472.pdf
McKinsey. 2017. Air-mobility solutions: What they’ll need to take off https://www.mckinsey.com/ industries/capital-projects-and-infrastructure/our-insights/air-mobility-solutions-what-theyll- need-to-take-off
McKinsey. 2017. Commercial drones are here: The future of unmanned aerial systems https:// www.mckinsey.com/industries/capital-projects-and-infrastructure/our-insights/commercial- drones-are-here-the-future-of-unmanned-aerial-systems
Jungwoo Cho, Yoonjin Yoon. 2018. “How to assess the capacity of urban airspace: A topological approach using keep-in and keep-out geofence.” Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2018.05.001.
David Thipphavong, Rafael Apaza, Bryan Barmore, Vernol Battiste, Barbara Burian, Quang Dao, Michael Feary, Susie Go, Kenneth Goodrich, Jeffrey Homola, Husni Idris, Parimal Kopardekar, Joel Lachter, Natasha Neogi, Hok Ng, Rosa Oseguera-Lohr, Michael Patterson, and Savita Verma. 2018. Urban Air Mobility Airspace Integration Concepts and Considerations. Moffett Field: NASA Ames Research Center. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20180005218
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