Drones in urban stormwater management: a review and future perspectives

Cities across the world are struggling to address flooding and water quality pollution from stormwater runoff, in part because of a lack of technologies that can effectively support management actions. Drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, are a technology that have the potential to address this challenge through rapid, on-demand, high-resolution data. Drones have seen an emergence among water resources and environmental researchers and practitioners; however, less attention has been given to their potential for stormwater management. Therefore, this paper presents a review of drone studies that have applications for urban stormwater management and provides future perspectives on their role as an emerging technology. A case is made for drones as a tool that can support asset management, conduct flow and water quality monitoring, collect high spatial resolution data for improved model parameterization, and support the smart and connected cities of the future.