ACCESS
Urban Air Mobility
ABOVE AND BEYOND
The solution for efficient, safe, and sustainable urban mobility could be right above us. If urban planning and transportation has focused on solutions on the ground, it is now time to take into account the third dimension of mobility. In this article, POLIS’ Victoire Couëlle brings together the views of private and public Urban Air Mobility stakeholders to discuss ways to make UAM a reality
Drones flying over urban populated areas, © USEPE
The urban population is growing at an increasingly rapid pace: according to the World Health Organisation, by 2030, 60% of the total world’s population is expected to live in cities. This increase in urban population density and economic clustering will further exacerbate urban challenges, from inadequate or ageing infrastructures to pollution and traffic congestion.
When looking for solutions, urban logistics and transportation focus on sustainable multimodal mobility, usually overlooking a fundamental dimension of transportation: Urban Air Mobility (UAM). What may have sounded like science fiction is now becoming a reality thanks to rapidly developing technologies that lead us to expect drone deliveries and passenger's transportation within the next 10 years. As the number of pilot projects - such as the USEPE project in which POLIS is a partner - and players in the field are increasing, it is time to include UAM in urban planning and legislation, to achieve a unified airspace as well as a truly holistic approach for sustainable urban mobility.
Understanding Urban Air Mobility
Helicopters and regional airlines have been utilizing airspace for years, but Urban Air Mobility (UAM) aircraft are curently being developed to fully take advantage of the low and very low-altitude airspace. By using electric propulsion, they are able to provide a safer, cleaner, and quieter alternative to conventional jet engines. UAM vehicles are characterized by their ability to fly over populated areas at very low altitudes, allowing them to easily and directly address citizens’ daily transportation and logistics needs.
UAM vehicles are vehicles tailored for city- and region-centric missions, providing complementarity to existing transportation systems in view of improving the overall efficiency of the urban mobility fabric in a resilient, responsible and sustainable manner
Vassilis Agouridas, Leader of UAM Initiative Cities Community (UIC2)
UAM aircraft will also allow us to transport people safely and efficiently through air taxis, as well as deliver goods and provide rapid medical emergency assistance through drones. The consequent efficient use of airspace will extensively scale up the use of urban air traffic and delivery services within the city in a way that was previously impossible.
(UAM) provides the opportunity to unlock and unify the airspace, enabling people and organizations to safely unlock the potential thanks to flight automation.
Phil Binks, Head of Air Traffic Management at Altitude Angel
The U-Space
The numbers of active drones are increasing and developing the ability to travel across long distances, making it necessary to start protecting the safety of citizens and the airspace. The European Commission has been updating its airspace regulation to include unmanned automated entities and develop a legal framework for safe drone operations across the EU. The Commission has clearly stated during the 2016 Warsaw Declaration its intention to develop the airspace sector, calling for research and innovation as well as introducing the U-space. U-space is a set of new services and harmonized conditions relying on a high level of digitalization and automation of functions and specific procedures designed to support safe, efficient, and secure access to airspace for large numbers of low-altitude drones. This framework prevents the collision between drones and other aircraft, mitigates the risks of drone traffic on the ground and opens the European market to low-altitude drones.
Future Opportunities for Europe
The UAM ecosystem is rapidly growing: European manufacturers have started developing aircraft that will be fully operational within the next few years. The potential of the UAM sector in Europe is considerable, as the Leader of UAM Initiative Cities Community (UIC2) – a community of 46 cities and regions across 15 European countries that serves as multi-stakeholder platform where all actors in the UAM value chain unite with the cities and regions on the driving seat. Vassilis Agouridas states: “Even if drones and eVTOLs would cover only a small fraction of the total transportation needs (passenger and logistics) within European cities, as many academic studies have shown, this would already amount to thousands of urban airborne journeys everyday”. This highlights the need for co-existence and integration of the air and ground segments of sustainable urban mobility. This potential can be expanded outside cities, developing an inter-regional urban air traffic network that connects European urban and rural centres. Faced by the extensive potential of the UAM market in Europe, operators have already started operations and commercialization, which is why unifying the market and preparing a strong regulatory framework is essential.
Urban Air Mobility © USEPE
The Multilevel Governance of the Urban Sky
For UAM to be fully integrated and coexist with the rest of air traffic, cities and regions need to play a central role in the development of legislation. Indeed, the coordination with public authorities and entities, with a focus on the role of local authorities, aviation and mobility experts and manufacturers will be a defining factor for the efficient management of the urban sky. To ensure that cities and regions are taken into account and able to voice their views on upcoming regulatory frameworks, the task forces of the UIC2 formed and presented the UIC2 Manifesto on the Multilevel Governance of the Urban Sky, explicitly acknowledging the role of cities and regions in the governance of U-Space and assuring them a deciding role as competent authority, along with other pertinent stakeholders, for future operations over their territories. Up to now, 26 cities and regions across Europe, as well as a growing number of associations, have been supporting this manifesto. As a layer between citizens and governments, regions and cities have the ability to proactively engage with citizens, which will be fundamental to develop societal acceptance of urban air mobility. The EASA has already launched a study in November 2020 to evaluate public reception of drones and commercial passenger eVTOL services and the overall public and social readiness to embrace and adopt this new mobility mode.
Future Challenges of UAM
If technological innovations have made considerable progress over the past five years, one of the biggest challenges for the adoption, development and commercialization of UAM remains public acceptance and understanding.
Overcoming psychological barriers to and increasing social acceptance of UAM is fundamental, which is why we need to develop citizen’s trust and assure that drones are not going against our shared values and boundaries
Phil Binks, Head of Air Traffic Management at Altitude Angel
In some quarters, negative preconceptions associated with drones have developed and it is important to understand their concerns and debunk negative preconceived notions, by providing concrete demonstrations on how they work. The assistance of UAM to national health services during the pandemic through medical drone deliveries allowed to demonstrate ways UAM can provide societal benefits – this is the way forward. Other important challenges for UAM are urban infrastructure and networks. As we move forward, it is necessary to build infrastructure and design services that integrate UAM technology. Only by implementing adequate physical infrastructure we will foster the development of an integrated transport network that connects cities, airports, stations, and other infrastructures.
POLIS member Helmond has launched, through its Brainport Smart District, the collaborative project Flying Forward that aims to develop an air mobility system and has as overarching objectives to incorporate UAM with geospatial data infrastructure of cities, as well as creating appropriate infrastructure able to address current and future urban challenge.
For people to imagine the possibilities of UAM and integrate it to urban planning, we need to demonstrate the possibilities and allow people to experience it firsthand.
Ruud van Iwaarden, Representative of Flying Forward
As we move forward, it is necessary to start taking into consideration all aspects of sustainable multimodal mobility, including air traffic. What has remained an idea throughout history is now becoming a reality, with all the opportunities and challenges it entails. It is now time we start having open discussions with local authorities, manufacturers, and citizens on what we want the future UAM ecosystem and daily mobility to look like.
Victoire Couëlle is Communications Assistant at POLIS Network. Contact her: vcouelle@polisnetwork.eu
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