Quantifying Visual Pollution from Urban Air Mobility

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can bring many benefits, particularly in emergency response and disaster management. However, they also induce negative effects, such as noise and visual pollution, risk, and integrity concerns. In this work, we study visual pollution, developing a quantitative measure that can calculate the visual pollution from one or multiple UAVs. First, the Analytic Hierarchy Process was utilized in an expert workshop to find and rank factors relevant to visual pollution. Then an image-based questionnaire targeted at the general public was used to find relations between the factors. The results show that the two main factors causing visual pollution are the number of UAVs and the distance between a UAV and the observer. They also show that while a UAV used for emergency medical services is as polluting as any other UAV, it is easier to tolerate this pollution. Based on the questionnaire results, two visual pollution functions were developed that can be used when carrying out path planning for one or multiple UAVs. When combining this function with other existing measures for noise pollution, and ground and air risk, it is possible to find paths that will give as little negative impact as possible from urban air mobility.