Review of the Current State of UAV Regulations

TLDR

UAVs enable data acquisition at temporal and spatial scales beyond traditional remote sensing, yet legal frameworks have imposed barriers, and since the early 2000s countries have progressively established national regulations. This paper investigates UAV regulations worldwide to highlight their importance, impact, and diversity. The authors performed a research synthesis through literature review and comparative analysis of national regulatory frameworks, examining similarities, contrasts, and temporal trends. The study finds that all regulations share the goal of minimizing risks to airspace users and ground stakeholders, but vary markedly across variables, and that market forces such as industry standards and information availability are expected to shape future developments.

Abstract

UAVs—unmanned aerial vehicles—facilitate data acquisition at temporal and spatial scales that still remain unachievable for traditional remote sensing platforms. However, current legal frameworks that regulate UAVs present significant barriers to research and development. To highlight the importance, impact, and diversity of UAV regulations, this paper provides an exploratory investigation of UAV regulations on the global scale. For this, the methodological approach consists of a research synthesis of UAV regulations, including a thorough literature review and a comparative analysis of national regulatory frameworks. Similarities and contrasting elements in the various national UAV regulations are explored including their statuses from the perspectives of past, present, and future trends. Since the early 2000s, countries have gradually established national legal frameworks. Although all UAV regulations have one common goal—minimizing the risks to other airspace users and to both people and property on the ground—the results reveal distinct variations in all the compared variables. Furthermore, besides the clear presence of legal frameworks, market forces such as industry design standards and reliable information about UAVs as public goods are expected to shape future developments.