Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MUSE (Measuring U-Space Social and Environmental Impact)
Reporting period: 2023-06-01 to 2024-05-31
U-space will enable urban air mobility (UAM) on a wide scale, facilitating a variety of use cases (e.g. medical and emergency transport, delivery of goods, passenger transport services). Social acceptance and impact on citizens is not completely understood in this growing scenario. Current U-space performance frameworks include indicators to evaluate UAM’s environmental impact. However, they are still too generic and aggregated to properly capture the broad variety of impacts of UAM operations.
The goal of MUSE is to develop a set of key performance indicators (KPIs), methods and tools for the comprehensive and rigorous assessment of the impact of UAM operations on the liveability and quality of life in European cities. The project is expected to establish the basis for a future U-space service that supports other U-space services in the minimisation of UAM’s negative social and environmental externalities.
This general goal can be translated into the following specific objectives:
1. To define a set of U-space social and environmental KPIs able to capture the full range of UAM impacts on citizens’ quality of life.
2. To develop new methods and tools for the measurement and forecasting of the proposed KPIs.
3. To showcase and evaluate the capabilities of the new methods and tools developed by MUSE through their application to a set of case studies in one or more European cities.
4. To create the conditions for the transfer of the project results to the subsequent stages of the R&I cycle by outlining a new SESAR Solution, the MUSE U-space Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Framework, that serves as an enabler of a future U-space service aimed at optimising the social and environmental performance of UAM operations.
MUSE will produce four main results: (i) the MUSE U-space Environmental and Social Performance Framework, (iii) MUSE U-space Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Toolset; (iv) the Case Study Report; and (iv) the MUSE Solution Data Pack, which will aims to consolidate the Performance Framework and the Assessment Toolset into a SESAR Solution that serves the key technological enabler of a future U-space service aimed at optimising the social and environmental performance of UAM operations.
The scale of the expected outcomes and impacts can be assessed from different perspectives:
- Local and regional scale. The very nature of UAM operations means that the first impact of MUSE results is reflected at the local level, in particular in urban and metropolitan environments where drone-based solutions can be deployed. According to the UN World Urbanization Prospects, there will be more than 260 areas with population over 300k inhabitants in Europe, all of which are likely to implement drone-based services. MUSE solution should help local governments manage the coexistence of these services with the daily business of the city.
- European scale. The project will also deliver insights on European-level impacts of U-space and UAM deployment, which can be useful for stakeholders like the European Commission or EASA in order to establish a regulatory framework conducive to their development. MUSE outcomes should serve to position Europe as the leading region in terms of societal and regulatory maturity of UAM.
- Global scale. MUSE toolset can be used, with minor refinements, to assess the performance of U-space and UAM services anywhere in the world. The results obtained should stimulate scientific research beyond European borders.
The goal of MUSE is to develop a set of key performance indicators (KPIs), methods and tools for the comprehensive and rigorous assessment of the impact of UAM operations on the liveability and quality of life in European cities. The project is expected to establish the basis for a future U-space service that supports other U-space services in the minimisation of UAM’s negative social and environmental externalities.
This general goal can be translated into the following specific objectives:
1. To define a set of U-space social and environmental KPIs able to capture the full range of UAM impacts on citizens’ quality of life.
2. To develop new methods and tools for the measurement and forecasting of the proposed KPIs.
3. To showcase and evaluate the capabilities of the new methods and tools developed by MUSE through their application to a set of case studies in one or more European cities.
4. To create the conditions for the transfer of the project results to the subsequent stages of the R&I cycle by outlining a new SESAR Solution, the MUSE U-space Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Framework, that serves as an enabler of a future U-space service aimed at optimising the social and environmental performance of UAM operations.
MUSE will produce four main results: (i) the MUSE U-space Environmental and Social Performance Framework, (iii) MUSE U-space Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Toolset; (iv) the Case Study Report; and (iv) the MUSE Solution Data Pack, which will aims to consolidate the Performance Framework and the Assessment Toolset into a SESAR Solution that serves the key technological enabler of a future U-space service aimed at optimising the social and environmental performance of UAM operations.
The scale of the expected outcomes and impacts can be assessed from different perspectives:
- Local and regional scale. The very nature of UAM operations means that the first impact of MUSE results is reflected at the local level, in particular in urban and metropolitan environments where drone-based solutions can be deployed. According to the UN World Urbanization Prospects, there will be more than 260 areas with population over 300k inhabitants in Europe, all of which are likely to implement drone-based services. MUSE solution should help local governments manage the coexistence of these services with the daily business of the city.
- European scale. The project will also deliver insights on European-level impacts of U-space and UAM deployment, which can be useful for stakeholders like the European Commission or EASA in order to establish a regulatory framework conducive to their development. MUSE outcomes should serve to position Europe as the leading region in terms of societal and regulatory maturity of UAM.
- Global scale. MUSE toolset can be used, with minor refinements, to assess the performance of U-space and UAM services anywhere in the world. The results obtained should stimulate scientific research beyond European borders.
The activities performed and the main achievements of the project so far are the following:
- Bibliometric analysis and literature review performed to identify UAM impacts and relevant indicators.
- Performance Framework defined in eight different areas: indicators in the Noise, Visual pollution, Privacy concerns, and Access and Equity areas will be further analysed in the case studies; indicators in the Economic aspects, Emissions, Wildlife and Security areas are also defined.
- Peer-review validation of the performance framework has been conducted by a panel of 25 external experts, including ATM experts, urban planners, sociologists, psychologists, health officers, environmental health specialists, European city and regional authorities, and other relevant stakeholders (e.g. emergency services). 22 out of these 25 experts participated through the MUSE 1st Stakeholders’ Workshop, where 17 of them filled out the questionnaire distributed to validate the performance framework, indicators proposed, cross-cutting areas, etc. An additional working session with 3 members of the Advisory Board who could not participate in the workshop was conducted in Madrid, in order to discuss the performance framework.
- Functional blocks, architecture and requirements of the platform defined.
- Development of individual modules forming the toolset and testing of their individual outputs.
- Initial integration tasks between the modules, allowing the obtention of a set of final indicators for visual pollution.
- Case studies have been defined for three different types of operations: last mile delivery, emergency operations, and security (loitering) actions.
- The case studies cover areas in the cities with many different uses and purposes: residential, commercial, industrial, recreational, educational, hospitals, sport facilities and stadiums, etc.
- Definition of the MUSE solution and future envisioned U-space service.
- Bibliometric analysis and literature review performed to identify UAM impacts and relevant indicators.
- Performance Framework defined in eight different areas: indicators in the Noise, Visual pollution, Privacy concerns, and Access and Equity areas will be further analysed in the case studies; indicators in the Economic aspects, Emissions, Wildlife and Security areas are also defined.
- Peer-review validation of the performance framework has been conducted by a panel of 25 external experts, including ATM experts, urban planners, sociologists, psychologists, health officers, environmental health specialists, European city and regional authorities, and other relevant stakeholders (e.g. emergency services). 22 out of these 25 experts participated through the MUSE 1st Stakeholders’ Workshop, where 17 of them filled out the questionnaire distributed to validate the performance framework, indicators proposed, cross-cutting areas, etc. An additional working session with 3 members of the Advisory Board who could not participate in the workshop was conducted in Madrid, in order to discuss the performance framework.
- Functional blocks, architecture and requirements of the platform defined.
- Development of individual modules forming the toolset and testing of their individual outputs.
- Initial integration tasks between the modules, allowing the obtention of a set of final indicators for visual pollution.
- Case studies have been defined for three different types of operations: last mile delivery, emergency operations, and security (loitering) actions.
- The case studies cover areas in the cities with many different uses and purposes: residential, commercial, industrial, recreational, educational, hospitals, sport facilities and stadiums, etc.
- Definition of the MUSE solution and future envisioned U-space service.
MUSE will bring the following improvements in the state-of-the-art in the assessment of UAM’s social and environmental impact:
1. Development of a comprehensive social and environmental performance framework, not existing today, including highly disaggregated indicators and high-accuracy measurement mechanisms based on new sources of big data and state-of-the-art data analytics techniques.
2. Enhancement of drone trajectory simulation, by combining the capabilities of two state-of-the-art tools, GEMMA and DYNAMO, to provide more realistic representations of drone trajectories in urban U-space.
3. Enhancement of noise emission and propagation models, by (i) conducting a systematic characterisation of the different types of vehicles that are expected to be used for drone delivery services; (ii) by integrating the CARMEN and Noisemodelling tools to enable the creation of accurate noise map for each drone flyover, accounting for reflection, masking and diffraction by buildings.
4. Improving current methods for dynamic population mapping and exposure assessment based on data from personal mobile devices, which will be evolved in two ways: (i) increasing the quality of activity characterisation, thanks to the fusion with VHR EO data that will help us distinguish indoor and outdoor activities in a more accurate manner; (ii) developing the required data processing pipelines to compute individual exposure diaries over time, which will enable a better measurement of cumulative exposure.
The Performance Framework tasks have been completed during this reporting period, while the rest are an ongoing tasks to be finalised by the end of the next reporting period.
1. Development of a comprehensive social and environmental performance framework, not existing today, including highly disaggregated indicators and high-accuracy measurement mechanisms based on new sources of big data and state-of-the-art data analytics techniques.
2. Enhancement of drone trajectory simulation, by combining the capabilities of two state-of-the-art tools, GEMMA and DYNAMO, to provide more realistic representations of drone trajectories in urban U-space.
3. Enhancement of noise emission and propagation models, by (i) conducting a systematic characterisation of the different types of vehicles that are expected to be used for drone delivery services; (ii) by integrating the CARMEN and Noisemodelling tools to enable the creation of accurate noise map for each drone flyover, accounting for reflection, masking and diffraction by buildings.
4. Improving current methods for dynamic population mapping and exposure assessment based on data from personal mobile devices, which will be evolved in two ways: (i) increasing the quality of activity characterisation, thanks to the fusion with VHR EO data that will help us distinguish indoor and outdoor activities in a more accurate manner; (ii) developing the required data processing pipelines to compute individual exposure diaries over time, which will enable a better measurement of cumulative exposure.
The Performance Framework tasks have been completed during this reporting period, while the rest are an ongoing tasks to be finalised by the end of the next reporting period.