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UAS and Climate Change

The stability of our economic and social systems is dependent upon climate predictability. However, with each passing year, local, regional, and global climate patterns are increasingly characterized by uncertainty. Monitoring change in environmental systems is of growing importance. Unmanned aircraft systems provide a means to monitor events at the finest scale, enabling scientists to detect change early on.

Sea Level Rise

Unmanned aircraft system (UAS) technologies assist sea level rise modeling by creating high-resolution digital elevation models to aid in the identification of areas vulnerable to inundation under various sea level rise scenarios. UAV technologies can help inform the creation of effective evacuation management strategies. Additionally, the high temporal resolution related to UAS technologies permits tracking the progression of coastal depositional and erosional patterns to increase the accuracy of models.

Natural Disasters

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) provide essential, time-critical information to natural disaster response efforts. The unique and urgent problems posed by natural disasters require flexible, quickly-deployable systems. UAS technology can be used to locate survivors, identify landing sites for larger aircraft, and deliver essential resources to stranded survivors. In addition, the flexibility of the UAS platform means it can be used to quickly and safely assess damage in remote or dangerous areas inaccessible by other means.