Unveiling barriers in the clouds: environmental, regulatory, and technical constraints on UAV operations in highland urban landscape

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have garnered considerable attention in recent years due to their integration across diverse industries, including lo¬gistics and disaster management. Challenges such as limited accessibili¬ty to remote or hazardous locations, and the inability to perform real-time monitoring and situational analysis, have been effectively addressed through the deployment of UAV technologies [1]. Operating UAVs within ur¬ban environments presents several challenges and constraints. Regulatory requirements, the presence of numerous obstacles, air pollution, and en¬ergy consumption inefficiencies have prompted researchers to investigate methods for optimizing UAV flight routes [1] [2] [3]. Nevertheless, these op¬timizations may not be directly transferable to UAV operations in highland urban environments due to a variety of additional constraints. Highland urban landscapes were selected because their steep terrain and variable weather create uniquely complex operational conditions. UAVs are used for their flexibility, affordability, and ability to capture high-resolution data in hard-to-reach areas. Other platforms like satellites or manned aircraft lack the needed detail, maneuverability, or cost-effectiveness. This study seeks to systematically identify and analyse these constraints, which are classi¬fied into three principal domains: environmental, regulatory, and technical.