Unmanned air vehicles for environmental disaster evaluation and management. MEMbrain - Work package 4.

This report presents the possibility to use Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) for environmental disaster evaluation and management. A response team may be faced with personal risk and health hazards when dealing with environmental disasters. The report points out how useful a UAV system can be to keep these risks at a minimum. An introduction to the UAV technology gives an overview of technical and operational requirements. Different categories of UAVs and available payloads options are described. A cost estimate for investments as well as for organising, training, maintenance is described. Finally some examples of UAV applications are given. These include applications of high interest and priority in other countries.