1665898 - UAS Operations in Complex Urban and Rural Environments

There is a notable increase in the rate of adoption of Unmanned/Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) by agencies, consultants and academia to accomplish a variety of tasks related to transportation. As UAS applications are assimilated into the transportation framework, their use is becoming more prevalent in both urban and rural environments. Although UAS operations are seemingly simple to perform, there are several context-specific factors that must be considered when planning UAS missions in various environments, whether densely or sparsely populated.

This presentation will discuss the intricacies of scoping, planning and executing UAS missions in public airspace in the context of both urbanized and rural areas. Several case studies will be presented which highlight UAS use in a variety of environments, ranging from remote deserts, to heavily wooded forests, to dense urban centers in proximity of major airfields. The challenges of each location context will be discussed in detail to highlight prudent actions that should be taken by remote pilots during mission planning and execution. Relevant mandatory and voluntary pre-flight tasks will also be discussed.

This topic will be viewed through the lens of maintaining public safety and minimizing disturbance to existing systems and infrastructure. The goal of this presentation is to inform current or prospective UAS users of the factors that should be considered in order to safely operate UAS for transportation-related purposes while adhering to appropriate local, state and federal regulations and mitigating against public safety and privacy concerns.