I.
Environmental Implications (Aaron Woods)
A drone is generally thought of as a military weapon or surveillance tool.
Commonly referred to as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), unmanned
aerial system (UAS) or remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), a drone can also
provide a low-cost and low-impact solution to environmental managers
working in a variety of ecosystems. Drones used for these purposes are
referred to as ‘eco-drones’ or ‘conservation drones. Their agility and quality
imaging abilities make them advantageous as a mapping tool for
environmental monitoring. The Center for the Environmental
Implications of Drones as well as the Moral and Ethical Implications
are broad and full of questions about the future of this man made
device. From understanding is exploring the relationship between a
device to manufactured, to those produced incidentally by human activities
and the potential environmental exposure, biological effects, and ecological
impacts.
In the human mind, sometimes there is question on if certain devices
should be used for daily human interaction. Additionally, drones are devices
that are developed risk assessment tools to provide guidance in assessing
existing and future concerns surrounding the environmental implications of
nanomaterials. But there are things that matter more than anything, which
are environmental, moral and ethical implications. With environmental
implementations, there are the key factors of global positioning, danger, and
air support. Within ethics and morals, it is the factor of safety issues.
a. Global Positioning
With Global positioning, there are many key factors that come into play for any type of global
positioning. It can transition to monitoring, doing surveillance and inventory. Although many
types of satellite imagery are readily available – low resolution for free online (Landsat, MODIS)
and high resolution for purchase (WorldView, Quickbird) – they sometimes cannot offer
necessarily high resolution, cover the specific area of study, or capture the map for proper
monitoring. For several types of situations, satellite imagery and remote sensing analysis are
the only way to see what has occurred on the ground, but sometimes the information collected
may not be adequate enough. If the global image resolution is not high enough to see exact
areas of devastation or change, coverage of an entire affected area is not available, or imagery
is simply too expensive to acquire, then an analysis will be difficult to complete. The generally
the versatility of drones creates the potential for them to fill the data gap between satellites
and ground surveying in the above-mentioned cases. In addition, drones can do much more
than image acquisition, occasionally making them a great advantage over typical satellite or
aircraft image achievement.
i. Monitoring
1. Finding people in need of help
2. Migration patterns
3. Endangered species status
4. Agriculture
With technology constantly rising, it seems that there are things that seem to be out of
reach. Especially for people that live in the country. For people that live in places where
agriculture matters, then we could see that drones being effective for growth and
stabilization. Its best for being able to find a person that gets lost in the woods, forest or
mountains. In the city, everything is labeled to certain points that make it easier for
people that do not know the location to easily track their way around. In uncivilized
areas, even small islands, it’s extremely hard for people in a new environment to find
their way around. In dire emergency situations where a person is in trouble, people
need someone that can track them as fast as possible before something life threatening
occurs.
It’s the same concept for animals and other endangered species. To actually thin about
it, it’s very hard for humans to track certain things, drones can fly over the Artic to
observe sea ice conditions and track seal populations
ii. Surveillance
1. Illegal activity
a. Poaching
b. Illegal fishing
c. Illegal trade
iii. Inventory
1. Monitoring government property
2. Urban expansion
Drones have the potential to increase data collection efforts and
contribute to inventory and accounting. Specific environmental and
ecosystem applications suitable for the use of a drone can range from
precision agriculture, to mapping coastline or soil erosion, to species and
habitat monitoring. Drones can be launched into the eye of a hurricane to
measure wind speed at altitudes and conditions in which a manned
aircraft could not do. One of the most common civil applications is
rangeland management (Rango and Laliberte, 2010).
b. Checking for danger
i. Checking for bomb facilities
ii. Disaster Risk Management
1. Map impacted areas
2. Broadcast messages
Hazardous and difficult to reach areas such as fragile coastlines are well suited for drone
mapping.
c. Giving air support
i. Giving guidance
ii. Another source to predict the weather
iii. Pointing out routes that may slow down production time.
II.
Moral and Ethical Implications (Aaron Woods)
a. Safety issues
i. Spying on people
ii. A deadly error machine
iii. Legal issues