Source: China Civil Aviation News

As one of the countries with the most severe natural disasters in the world, over 70% of cities and over 50% of the population in China are located in high-risk areas of meteorological, earthquake, geological, and marine disasters. The basic national conditions of China include a wide variety of disaster types, wide distribution areas, high frequency of occurrence, heavy losses, and high disaster risks. Especially in recent years, many places in China have been hit by strong rainstorm, which has caused heavy casualties and property losses, highlighting the severe situation of natural disaster prevention in China.

In the process of responding to natural disasters and emergencies, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), with their characteristics of safety, reliability, efficiency, convenience, and low cost, effectively solve the problems of traditional emergency rescue methods being unable to be safely implemented, slow response speed, and high disposal costs, bringing revolutionary changes to emergency rescue.

In recent years, the national level and high-level departments have promoted the application of drones in aviation emergency rescue. In December 2021, the State Council released the "14th Five Year Plan for National Emergency System", emphasizing the promotion and application of high-tech distribution equipment such as drones to improve the efficiency of emergency transportation dispatch; In June 2022, the Ministry of Emergency Management released the "14th Five Year Plan for the Construction of Emergency Rescue Forces", proposing to accelerate the construction of an emergency rescue aircraft system consisting of large fixed wing firefighting aircraft, firefighting helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles with high and low matching, reasonable layout, and complementary functions; In January 2024, the Ministry of Emergency Management and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Emergency Robots", which mentioned promoting the practical application and demonstration of emergency robots such as drones in forest and grassland fire inspection and rescue, embankment inspection, emergency command communication, material transportation and other fields; In March 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Civil Aviation Administration and other departments issued the "Implementation Plan for Innovative Application of General Aviation Equipment (2024-2030)", promoting the construction of a manned unmanned, high-low matching, reasonably laid out and functionally complementary aviation emergency rescue equipment system, and accelerating the demonstration application of drones in the field of emergency rescue. Drones have shown great potential and prospects in four stages: pre disaster prevention and preparation, disaster monitoring and early warning, disaster response and rescue, and post disaster recovery and reconstruction.

Covering all stages of unmanned aerial vehicle emergency rescue, it has emerged as a rising star

The application of unmanned aerial vehicles in aviation emergency rescue in China was relatively late. During the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008, UAVs first appeared at the disaster accident rescue site in China. Later, in the Yushu Earthquake, COVID-19 prevention and control, rainstorm and flood in the Songliao Basin and other disasters and epidemics, UAVs played an important role in emergency rescue before, during, during and after the disaster.

By utilizing the shouting function of drones, we have carried out disaster prevention knowledge dissemination, shelter and escape route promotion, and other work, which has not only alleviated the shortage of personnel but also expanded the coverage, effectively enhancing the disaster prevention and mitigation awareness of the general public. At the same time, before disasters occur, using drones to quantitatively detect important facilities such as rivers, mountains, roads, bridges, and power facilities can provide benchmark data for subsequent disaster monitoring and early warning, which can improve the efficiency of disaster monitoring and enhance the accuracy of early warning.