Abstract
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or drones, have been gaining enormous popularity for many applications including informal settlement upgrading. Although UAVs can be used to efficiently collect highly detailed geospatial information, there are concerns regarding the ethical implications of its usage and the potential misuse of data. The aim of this study is therefore to evaluate the societal impacts of using UAVs for informal settlement mapping through two case studies in Eastern Africa. We discuss how the geospatial information they provide is beneficial from a technical perspective and analyze how the use of UAVs can be aligned with the values of: participation, empowerment, accountability, transparency, and equity. The local concept of privacy is investigated by asking citizens of the informal settlements to identify objects appearing in UAV images which they consider to be sensitive or private. As such, our research is an explicit example of how to increase citizen participation in the discussion of geospatial data security and privacy issues over urban areas and provides a framework of strategies illustrating how such issues can be addressed.
Highlights
Growing urban populations and an inability to meet affordable housing needs are some of the driving factors behind the emergence of informal settlements worldwide
Remote Sensing has emerged as a useful tool for the provision of spatial information for informal settlement management [18], the spatial resolution provided by satellite imagery is sometimes not sufficient for e.g., the detection of individual houses, infrastructure, and details of environmental conditions
We identify three strategies for addressing sensitive objects in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) data products (i) avoidable; (ii) unavoidable but removable; and (iii) unavoidable and irremovable, and describe how these strategies are related to the potential misuse of the data (Table 2)
Summary
Growing urban populations and an inability to meet affordable housing needs are some of the driving factors behind the emergence of informal settlements worldwide. The current paradigm regarding urban upgrading projects encourages in situ upgrading which aims to improve the living conditions within a neighborhood itself [1,7,8] through the improvement of the physical infrastructure [9], while advocating effective participation of the local community [10]. The design of these infrastructural improvements, as well as urban governance in general [11], requires geospatial information [7,8,12]. Remote Sensing has emerged as a useful tool for the provision of spatial information for informal settlement management [18], the spatial resolution provided by satellite imagery is sometimes not sufficient for e.g., the detection of individual houses, infrastructure, and details of environmental conditions
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