The Role of ‘Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ in Smart City Planning and Management

Abstract

A massive wave of urbanisation has grasped both developed and developing nations in the last decade. Various studies showcase the rising trend of rapid urbanisation growth due to demographic shifts, catalysed by numerous global and local parameters. India is professed to house 50 percent of its population in urban areas by 2030. The urban citizen’s rising expectations regarding infrastructure, amenities and safety will dovetail with this phenomenon. To cater to the demands of increased urbanisation, the concept of Smart cities is being advocated as an apt solution. Even so, there is widespread ambiguity about the challenges associated with adopting smart solutions into the existing urban social form. Though there have been many tentative explanations regarding the basic framework of a smart city, there are no known validated definitions. The main notable feature is the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) within the cyclic dynamics of a city to facilitate the smooth and cost-effective working of urban areas. This ICT infrastructure enables real-time data collection, analysis, response, and storage. This has been deemed beneficial due to the increase in efficiency of operation and management services involved with the day-to-day functioning of any urban area. Smart cities advocate using information and communication technologies (ICTs) within the dynamics of a city to enable the real-time collection, analysis, and storage of big data. This is beneficial due to the increased efficiency of operation and management services involved with an urban area’s daily functioning. One such technological intervention is the ‘drone’ or the ‘unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)’. UAVs have a wide variety of uses in a smart urban fabric, from geospatial integration to traffic management, surveillance, disaster response, etc. In the current nascent stage of research and development of UAVs as one of the innovative solutions for smart cities in India, questions arise regarding privacy, cost of production, technical knowledge, safety and security with their large-scale use. This paper aims to assess the applicability of UAVs in overall smart city planning and management. The feasibility analysis method is adopted to analyse the felicitousness of UAVs in a smart city’s planning and design phases. The results of the study undertaken in this paper highlight the challenges and opportunities in the planning and management of smart cities by integrating UAVs. The paper enumerates the relevance and appropriate benefits of using UAVs to plan, design, and perpetuate Indian smart cities.