#DronesForGood — How Drones are Impacting Humanitarian Efforts Around the World
We all know drones are the next great commercial revolution in making many industries more efficient and gathering better data faster. But, this is only the tip of the iceberg in how drones can change the lives for millions around the world.
As a low cost, easy to use and rapidly deployable replacement of aircraft in many situations, drone’s applications in the humanitarian and development spaces are a new opportunity to improve, and even save, lives. Groups are now using drones for a range of tasks which were previously difficult dangerous or just required a lot of human effort. Drones are now being used for such tasks as:
- Communications — Providing Wi-fi and cellular nodes in disaster areas
- Disaster management — finding people, assessing damage and identifying escape routes after a natural disaster
- Mapping and preserving archaeological sites — helping archaeologists to create 3D maps of important sites, an accurate replica will persist that can be studied and used as a resource for future generations.
- Conservation & Anti- Poaching — helping with both monitoring of illegal clearing and deforestation as well as monitoring animal populations and identifying poaching groups in controlled areas.
- Delivering medical supplies — allowing the delivery of critical medical supplies to reach difficult to reach areas, whether by natural isolation or disaster events.
With drone prices falling and technology continually improving the applications for their use, particularly in developing countries, many humanitarian and development groups are adopting drones as the technology of choice to aid their efforts. These groups conduct a range of drone operations to support their goals. Some of the groups facilitating the use of #DronesForGood include:
- World Food Program — One of the first users of drones in humanitarian and development contexts 2007. WFP is now partnering with NGOs and private organisations to deliver assistance via drones in a range of projects.
- weRobotics — Founded by Dr Patrick Meier, weRobotics works with partners all over the world, such as the World Food Program. WeRobotics co-creates a global network of local knowledge hubs — “Flying Labs®” — in low-income countries. The goal of the Flying Labs is to accelerate the positive impact of local aid, health, development and environmental projects.
- UAViators (aka the Humanitarian Drone Network) — UAViators has over 3,200 members in 120+ countries, with a mission to promote the safe, coordinated and effective use of UAVs for data collection and cargo delivery in a wide range of humanitarian and development settings.
- Air Shepherd & Sea Shepherd — Both of these organisations use drones as part of anti-poaching efforts to identify poachers in both the sea and land. It’s safer using drones but they have been shot down in the past by well armed poachers.
- Zipline — California startup Zipline created a national drone delivery system to ship blood and drugs to remote medical centers in Rwanda.
Yet these are only a sample of the applications of how #DronesForGood will change the nature of the future of humanitarian efforts across the globe, and we have only scratched the surface of the potential of this technology. It’s exciting to see the positive effect of drone technology across so many different types of operations and businesses, and it will be very fascinating to see what they have in store for us over the next 5 years.
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