The growing demand for energy-efficient buildings and the urgent need to retrofit aging infrastructure have driven increased interest in advanced diagnostic technologies. Among these, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based infrared thermography (IRT) has emerged as a promising non-destructive technique for assessing the thermal performance of building envelopes. This review examines recent developments and applications of dynamic infrared thermography (IRT) in the building sector for both qualitative and quantitative thermal assessment, based on previously conducted studies. It highlights the increasing adoption of integrated UAV-based IRT for building inspection and diagnostics, and critically reviews the operational, technical, and methodological advancements in dynamic thermography achieved over the past decade. Furthermore, the review presents a comprehensive framework for operational planning, encompassing environmental conditions, infrared camera configuration, and optimal UAV flight parameters. The key findings identify major challenges associated with dynamic IRT applications, particularly those related to measurement accuracy that currently limit its use for quantitative assessments and synthesize proposed methodologies to address these limitations. The review also highlights the absence of standardized procedures for determining emissivity and reflected apparent temperature in dynamic measurement setups and discusses potential approaches to overcome these gaps. Finally, it outlines priority directions for future research to support the reliable and consistent application of dynamic IRT in quantitative analysis and provides a reference for energy auditors and thermography practitioners to inform the selection of appropriate procedures for accurately quantifying heat loss in building envelopes.
Marand et al. (Sat,) studied this question.