In the article with the aim of the functioning efficiency of the unified state system of civil protection to minimize the consequences and prevent the depletion or destruction of individual natural complexes and resources (i.e., excessive pollution of the environment and the destructive effects of natural forces and other factors that limit or exclude the possibility of life of a person and the implementation of economic activity under these conditions) the results of further development of the scientific and technical foundations for the implementation of a system for operational monitoring of a certain area have been presented. These results were based on the example of the issues of reconnaissance and clarification of the area parameters contaminated by hazardous chemicals using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) where an environmental emergency has been occurred. It has been established that the main criterion for the effectiveness of the use of UAVs is the time of monitoring the area of an environmental emergency. That time is associated with both the characteristics and the formation of the UAV flight path.
In the article the method of forming a flight path for reconnaissance and clarifying the parameters of the contamination zone of the area with hazardous chemicals by one UAV was presented. Also, the formation of the flight path when using the group flight of the UAV was presented. As a result of the research, it was found that with the group version of monitoring the UAV terrain, the flight time is significantly reduced. This proves the effectiveness of organizing such an option for monitoring a certain area of an emergency environmental situation.