Thursday 26 October: Regulations, Privacy and Safety

Overview

• Live webinar with Giacomo Rambaldi from CTA on Adobe Connect
• Overview of the work done by CTA on drone regulations
• Global drone regulation database
• The UAS toolkit from ICAO
• Euorpean Aviation Safety Agency

Today, we are tackling an important topic, on which many of you have already posted questions: regulations. We will start our topic with a live presentation from Giacomo Rambaldi from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA). He will talk about regulations, privacy, safety and security and look in particular into the situation in Africa. He will explain what you need to know about regulations before starting operating a drone and where you can find additional information, specific to the country you are working in. He will also address the challenges regulations bring to introducing drones in agriculture.

Giacomo Rambaldi is senior programme coordinator at the Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in Wageningen, Netherlands. He has 35 years of professional experience in Africa, Latin America, South Asia, South-East Asia, South Pacific and the Caribbean where he worked for a number of international organizations including FAO, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and on projects funded by the Italian Aid to Development and the European Commission. Giacomo is founder and developer of Participatory Avenues www.iapad.org, a website dedicated to sharing knowledge on community mapping and collaborative spatial information management and of www.ppgis.net a worldwide network of participatory mapping practitioners. More recently he started working on the topic of UAVs/drones in agriculture paying attention to the aspect of national regulations which according to him may determine whether the technology will thrive or never take off in a country. He is managing the www.uav4ag.org DGroup with 900 members from over 100 countries and related accounts on Twitter  @uav4ag (26K followers) and Facebook @uav4ag (87K followers).

Drone Regulations: Challenges and ways forward - A recorded presentation by Giacomo Rambaldi from CTA

Drone regulations: Challenges and ways forward from CTA on Vimeo.

Q&A with Giacomo Rambaldi

Please let Giacomo know if you have any further questions! Join our live session and ask your questions directly, or if you missed the session, you can post your comments and questions at the bottom of this page in written

Want to stay in the loop of the work CTA is doing on drones regulations? Would you like to be member of the UAV4Ag Community of Practice he is managing?

• You can join by registering on www.uav4ag.org for the DGroups that focusses on drones for agriculture in developing countries
• Follow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/uav4ag
• Like on Facebook: www.facebook.com/uav4ag

Take a look at the following publications from CTA on drones regulations:

Stories from the field (in English and French):

• Regulations and realities in Nigeria’s UAV airspace: https://goo.gl/onfRQB 9French: https://goo.gl/SpZejy )
• Benin’s drone regulations lag behind: https://goo.gl/FmJLG4 (French: https://goo.gl/gPVbV6 )
• Are regulations stifling the drone-based agri-service industry in South Africa? https://goo.gl/RAf9xZ  (French: https://goo.gl/BNDHG7 )
• Smooth ride for drone operators in Ghana: https://goo.gl/iQWFfM 9French; https://goo.gl/Nom2QJ )
• Drone regulation in Kenya: about to take-off: https://goo.gl/RHXruy  (French: https://goo.gl/ycwkF9 )
• Study: Drone governance: a scan of policies, laws and regulations governing the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in 79 ACP countries https://goo.gl/f2b6mf This report provides a summary of the existing policies, laws and regulations, regarding the use of UAVs in the 79 ACP countries. The result of the research contributed to the population of an online database described below. 

Online Database: Global Drone Regulation Database

This database is comprised of a country directory with summaries of national drone laws. The objective is to provide humanitarian and non-humanitarian actors with a database of relevant national regulations, additional resources, and links to original regulatory documents to ensure that drones are deployed safely and in compliance with national regulations.

The database was initiated and launched as a Wiki by UAViators in 2014. From 2015 to 2016, it was enhanced by FSD with funding provided by DG ECHO, ceasing in 2017. The New America Foundation has contributed with regulatory information on numerous countries. Further significant contributions were made in 2016 by data on regulations in ACP countries produced by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA). Parrot and senseFly joined the contributor team at the end of 2016. OZYRPAS Consulting is providing the funding and further support from mid-2017. The portal is managed by an administrator and pages (some) are curated by individuals along the lines of Wikipedia. Contributors and would be national page curators are welcome to contact the portal administrator.

Toolkit: The UAS Toolkit from ICAO

The UAS toolkit from ICAO has been designed to help States with the development of UAS operational guidance, regulations and enabling operations in a safe manner. The scope of this toolkit is larger than the field in which UAV/UAS are used for agriculture but offers interesting information for people interested to know more about the regulations that are in place of being developed.

The toolkit is structured around the following chapters:

1. Narrative: The narrative presents UAS best practices, lessons learned and regulations for your consideration. We believe that developing UAS guidance and regulations that consider public and aviation safety first, along with security and privacy protection while promoting industry, is an achievable mission.
2. UAS Tookit: UAS operators, remote pilots and recreational pilots will benefit from the information contained in the toolkit as UAS operations grow in airspace traditionally occupied by manned operations.
3. Fly safe/Fly legal: In order to ensure their safe operation, to encourage business and to provide societal benefits, all aircraft must share airspace in a safe, predictable and regulated manner.
4. News: News related to unmanned aviation and related technology.
5. Current state regulations: Existing UAS regulations from around the world.
6. Frequently asked questions: Commonly asked questions and answers associated with unmanned aviation.

The UAS toolkit from ICAO can be consulted here.

European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)

https://www.easa.europa.eu

The European Aviation Safety Agency also dedicates a section of its website to drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: https://www.easa.europa.eu/easa-and-you/civil-drones-rpas

As the regulations across the different countries in Europe are different, the EASA was requested by the European Union and its member states to work on a proposal for common regulations. EASA will submit a final Opinion to the European Commission at the end of 2017 which will take into account the feedback received to the proposal that was collected during a public consultation that was closed on the 15th of September.

On their websites you can also find instruction regarding safe use of drones.

• Video: Civil drones - Have fun - be responsible for safety: https://www.easa.europa.eu/easa-and-you/civil-drones-rpas
• Poster: Flying a drone - do’s and don’ts: https://www.easa.europa.eu/system/files/dfu/213888_EASA_DRONE_POSTER___v5.pdf