Drones ‘have critical role to play in response to climate change’

THE USE of technology like drones has a “critical role” to play in the global response to climate change, an expert has said.

Technology entrepreneur Ewan Kirk said drones – or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – can help track and evaluate the impact of environment degradation from climate change and natural disasters, and poaching in environments which are difficult to reach and hostile.

But while they can collect important data from remote regions, their practicality has been restricted by their efficiency and battery life.

Now he is joining forces with a team of students from the University

of Southhampton – his former university – to improve work on improving the battery life of drones.

The Turner-Kirk UAV Research Support Programme will look at developing new ways to adapt existing drones in inexpensive ways as well as studying novel aircraft configurations designed to minimise the energy requirements.

He said: “Climate change is undoubtedly the biggest issue facing us all and as we get to grips with tackling this issue, I fundamentally believe the development and deployment of technology – including UAVs – has a critical role in our global response.

“In the fight against poaching, UAVs can be an incredibly valuable resource to authorities.

“For example, at over 7,000 square miles the Kruger National Park in Africa is almost the same size as Wales and poaching can happen anywhere and at any time of the day or night. To effectively patrol this area, anti-poaching agencies need UAVs with long flight times and they need them to be cheap enough that they can have many of them flying simultaneously.”

He added he would like UAVs to be an essential tool at the fingertips of those environment agencies already helping in the fight against climate change.

“They will help them gather data much more quickly and fundamentally I believe technology enables world-leading experts to do their jobs even better.”

The programme follows a £15,000 donation from Dr Kirk and Dr Patricia Turner and will fund three groups of fourth-year engineering student.