14.1.2022

AiRMOUR develops an Urban Air Mobility GIS Tool to be used in city planning. The tool will help urban decision makers and city planners to think in three dimensions. The partner responsible for the tool is Robots Expert.

The expected growth of drone logistics and other air mobility inside cities mean that the low-level airspace is no longer a concern only for aviation authorities. As air mobility technology is becoming more mature, urban decision makers and city planners need to think in three dimensions.

“The Geographical Information System (GIS) tool will assist city planners and policy makers to visualise combined ground and air data such as noise, nature protection and mobility hotspots”, says Benoît Larrouturou Country Manager Germany at Robots Expert. “Opening the urban airspace also requires citizens to see value in this type of mobility. The tool is designed to facilitate the engagement of citizens in that regard. Being able to visualise the impact increases the understanding and allows for more fact-based decision making.”

With the new tool, new data layers can be used to enrich the decision-making process as cities decide to make them publicly available. A large number of factors, for example air risk mitigation aspects and flight mission boundary conditions and policy management (e.g., management of noise abatement areas, zones with varying public acceptance, population density charts, landing sites and ground risk zones) can be considered. Some factors are meant to be static, others to be managed in a dynamic way, e.g. bird nesting areas should be protected only during the nesting season.

The GIS Tool is a cornerstone in the AiRMOUR City planning toolbox which also includes a UAM Integration Guidebook and a training package with online courses and Masterclasses.

Different data policies in cities

Most of the data relevant for the tool already exists in AiRMOUR partner cities. Combining it in a meaningful way is not trivial. Also, too much data may sometimes be overwhelming to manage and understand. The national policies on access to data very significantly across Europe, and directly impact the speed of adoption of UAM and the potential usefulness of tools such as the AiRMOUR GIS tool.

“Cities have different data policies. These variations cause challenges when developing tools that are based on their data. Many cities collect a lot of data, but it is not always clear how they want to use the data and what they see as the right use for it. There are concerns about privacy issues, too”, says Larrouturou.

“Nevertheless, cities have come a long way when it comes to acquiring data – a lot exists already.”

UAM GIS Tool: https://uaspace.robots.expert/airmour/
AiRMOUR Deliverable 6.1. GIS Tool user manual


For further information, please contact:

Robots Expert

Benoît Larrouturou, benoit.larrouturou(at)robots.expert