Flying into the hurricane: A case study of UAV use in damage assessment during the 2017 hurricanes in Texas and Florida

Greenwood, Faine; Nelson, Erica L.; Greenough, P. Gregg

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0227808

Cited by 57 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…We only included publications in English, primarily because it is the only common language in which all researchers involved are proficient. We set the search to begin in 2000 since the first use of drones for disaster relief purposes was reported in 2005 during the response to Hurricane Katrina (Greenwood et al, 2020 ). Further, existing literature reviews on drones, as well as our own preliminary database search, indicated that almost no papers referring to drones were published before 2000 (Christen et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethical Considerations Associated with “Humanitarian Drones”: A Scoping Literature Review

2021

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The use of drones (or unmanned aerial vehicles, UVAs) in humanitarian action has emerged rapidly in the last decade and continues to expand. These so-called ‘humanitarian drones’ represent the first wave of robotics applied in the humanitarian and development contexts, providing critical information through mapping of crisis-affected areas and timely delivery of aid supplies to populations in need. Alongside these emergent uses of drones in the aid sector, debates have arisen about potential risks and challenges, presenting diverse perspectives on the ethical, legal, and social implications of humanitarian drones. Guided by the methodology introduced by Arksey and O’Malley, this scoping review offers an assessment of the ethical considerations discussed in the academic and gray literature based on a screening of 1,188 articles, from which we selected and analyzed 47 articles. In particular, we used a hybrid approach of qualitative content analysis, along with quantitative landscape mapping, to inductively develop a typology of ethical considerations associated with humanitarian drones. The results yielded 11 key areas of concern: (1) minimizing harm, (2) maximizing welfare, (3) substantive justice, (4) procedural justice, (5) respect for individuals, (6) respect for communities, (7) regulatory gaps, (8) regulatory dysfunction, (9) perceptions of humanitarian aid and organizations, (10) relations between humanitarian organizations and industry, and (11) the identity of humanitarian aid providers and organizations. Our findings illuminate topics that have been the focus of extensive attention (such as minimizing risks of harm and protecting privacy), traces the evolution of this discussion over time (i.e., an initial focus on mapping drones and the distinction of humanitarian from military use, toward the ethics of cargo drones carrying healthcare supplies and samples), and points to areas that have received less consideration (e.g., whether sustainability and shared benefits will be compromised if private companies’ interest in humanitarian drones wanes once new markets open up). The review can thus help to situate and guide further analysis of drone use in humanitarian settings.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethical Considerations Associated with “Humanitarian Drones”: A Scoping Literature Review

2021

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“…UAVs are thus ideal tools that have been used in a post-disaster scenario. For example, in March 2015, when Tropical Cyclone Pam, a category 5 storm, struck Vanuatu, UAVs were employed for mapping areas to assess the damage [37]. Similarly, when Typhoon Haiyan affected Philippines in November 2013, UAVs were used for aerial imaging to get real-time information on the disaster with the help of aerial imaging and the development of future frameworks for emergency response planning [38].…”

Section: -2020mentioning

confidence: 99%

UAV Based Spatiotemporal Analysis of the 2019–2020 New South Wales Bushfires

et al. 2021

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Bushfires have been a key concern for countries such as Australia for a long time. These must be mitigated to eradicate the associated harmful effects on the climate and to have a sustainable and healthy environment for wildlife. The current study investigates the 2019–2020 bushfires in New South Wales (NSW) Australia. The bush fires are mapped using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing, the hotpots are monitored, and damage is assessed. Further, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)-based bushfire mitigation framework is presented where the bushfires can be mapped and monitored instantly using UAV swarms. For the GIS and remote sensing, datasets of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and VIIRS fire data products are used, whereas the paths of UAVs are optimized using the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The mapping results of 2019–2020 NSW bushfires show that 50% of the national parks of NSW were impacted by the fires, resulting in damage to 2.5 million hectares of land. The fires are highly clustered towards the north and southeastern cities of NSW and its border region with Victoria. The hotspots are in the Deua, Kosciu Sako, Wollemi, and Yengo National Parks. The current study is the first step towards addressing a key issue of bushfire disasters, in the Australian context, that can be adopted by its Rural Fire Service (RFS), before the next fire season, to instantly map, assess, and subsequently mitigate the bushfire disasters. This will help move towards a smart and sustainable environment.

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“…A UAV, commonly known as the flying vehicle or drone, is a highly portable and miniature pilotless aircraft, which can fly in the sky and be controlled remotely [1], [2]. Recently, with the fast advancement in the electronics and communication technologies industry, UAVs have been extensively engaged in military, civil, and commercial sectors [3], [4]. The global UAV market is valued at USD 19.3 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 45.8 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 15.5percent from 2019 to 2025 [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D Location Oriented Routing in Flying Ad-Hoc Networks for Information Dissemination

et al. 2021

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A Flying Ad-hoc Networks (FANETs) is an autonomous technology that creates a selforganized wireless network via Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAVs). In this network, all UAVs can communicate within a restricted range of wireless communication in the absence of fixed infrastructure. As a result of high mobility, the limited energy, and the communication range of UAVs, network forming, and deformation between them are very frequent that causes packet delivery failure. Therefore, a stable route is always needed to ensure effective data dissemination between source and destination in FANETs. Since it has drastically changing network topology, therefore, to maintain the stable route during packet transmission, there is a need for a suitable routing protocol. This paper proposes an Optimized Location-Aided Routing (O-LAR) protocol which is the modified version of Location-Aided Routing (LAR) protocol. Our protocol's novelty comes from the fact that it established an optimal route between UAVs for information dissemination towards their respective destination UAV by considering weight function. A weighted function is used to decide the best next-hop node selection based on the parameters like residual energy, distance, and UAV movement direction. The performance of the O-LAR is evaluated mathematically and simulated through the NS-2 simulator. The empirical results attest that O-LAR improves the link duration, network lifetime, packet delivery ratio, and average throughput compared with the state-of-the-art protocols: LEPR, D-LAR, and LAR. Further, the proposed scheme reduces the number of next-hops, routing overhead and end-to-end delay compared to the state-of-the-art protocols.

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Flying into the hurricane: A case study of UAV use in damage assessment during the 2017 hurricanes in Texas and Florida

Cited by 57 publications

References 19 publications

Ethical Considerations Associated with “Humanitarian Drones”: A Scoping Literature Review

Ethical Considerations Associated with “Humanitarian Drones”: A Scoping Literature Review

UAV Based Spatiotemporal Analysis of the 2019–2020 New South Wales Bushfires

3D Location Oriented Routing in Flying Ad-Hoc Networks for Information Dissemination

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