Disaster Drones
Disaster Drones

Disaster Drones – Do We Overdevelop and Underutilize Technology?

  • How much do crises cost us?
  • TheDronesWorld’s commitment
  • Contact us

Despite the continuous rise of new technology, natural and man-made disasters, pandemics, and migration present problems in our daily life. The methods for dealing with these kinds of situations are improving daily, based on these new technological achievements, such as disaster drones. Searching for survivors, rescue missions, rebuilding existing structures, acting in high radiation areas or post-war terrains are complex, time-sensitive, and dangerous tasks that often put human lives in jeopardy.

Man-made disasters such as wars, bio, and nuclear hazard disasters, and global warming create costs on the economy and on human lives in every part of the world. Many governments are spending trillions of dollars in R&D. However, the burning issues are still not resolved.

Disaster Drones help to resolve some of these issues with their quick response times, lack of human exposure, speed, and flexibility.


Let’s look at the numbers…


In wars in the 20th century alone, more than 108 million people have lost their lives. An estimated $13.6 trillion has been lost from violence, war, and terror, as recorded by the 2016 Global Peace Index. The same Global Peace Index for 2019 reports a loss of $14.1 trillion, from which $672 billion purchasing power from conflict zones. If we consider the fact that 971 million people live in areas that are affected by climate change and 400 million of these already are dealing with the problem of lack of peace, the importance of solving the problem of violence is the priority. Unfortunately, in this field drones are often seen as tools for destruction. Even in the battlefield, drones have the same and in some cases even better technology than life-saving drones, but no one is talking about it.

According to the European Environment Agency, the economic losses from climate-related extremes in Europe from the period of 1980-2017 are estimated at approximately 453 billion Euros. The Weather, Climate, and Catastrophe Insight: 2019 Anual Report registered $232 billion loss due to climate-related catastrophes in the world in 2019. The impact of drones in the environment is probably the highest, all due to the many fields that they can be operated.

Disaster Drone
Disaster Drone On Site

A Pandemic is the most recent form of crisis that humanity is facing. According to the Twitter post from the United Nations in March 2020, the cost of the COVID-19 outbreak is estimated at $2 trillion and more than 350,000 deaths. Not much of the UAV’s technology was used against COVID-19, and the benefits from it were not able to be presented in the best light.

Another global crisis, potentially related to all of the disasters mentioned above, is the rise of migration problems throughout the world. Since 2019, the EU countries, New Zeland, South Africa, and America have been the end destinations for many people fleeing for a better life. One of the biggest issues in this migration journey is the loss of these human lives. According to the International Migration Organization’s project ‘Missing Migrants’ which registered 921 people as of May 1, 2020, Europe and America are ranked as the top locations on the list.

With the rising effect of global warming, the continuing wars in different places of the world, and the predictions for the recession, the wave of migration is expected to rise even higher. Most of the cases for drone activities in the migration journey is surveillance and defending a line, instead of offering help and saving lives when needed.

UAV controlling the border – Credits to U.S Custom and Borders Protection

Many nations are addressing the disaster problem through the lens of technology. The EU sees the future of implementing technological solutions and lowering the losses caused by disasters through funding different platforms like Horizont 2020 and as of 2019, the European Drone Investment – Advisory Council. The USA is not far behind in the process, working on creating different legal frameworks that will allow drone technology to be used for public and business purposes.

With all of the resources and funding placed in policy-making and research and development, it seems that there is very little space to spread the word to the real players in the game. The provided services that are developed by the pioneers in the field of disaster prevention, detecting, or management are nowhere to be seen.


The Role of The Drones World in Promoting Disaster Drone Usage

The contribution of The Drones World in this battle is to introduce the involved stakeholders that are contributing to saving lives, dealing with climate change-related disaster and prevention, and rebuilding cities and ecosystems by using drones as part of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

We believe that the discrepancy between the individuals, organizations, or businesses that are working in the field of research and development and the offered services is not well connected or widespread. We are aiming to speed up the process of these stakeholders by giving them a public voice.

In the future, The Drones World commits to publishing information about past, present, and future services, projects, policy proposals, and/or any other activities that will contribute to bettering the state of the world in the field of migration, climate change, post-disaster prevention, recovery, and response. We strongly encourage you to contact us in case of any possible collaboration. If you share the same vision as us and are using UAV’s or related technologies to tackle the burning issues, help us to help others.