Abstract

Unoccupied Aerial Systems (UASs) have undergone extensive growth in the past decade. This growth has resulted in the application of these systems from highly niche application to application across many fields including consumer usage. This research explores the implementation of UASs for environmental surveying that has an impact on social groups. While much literature exists using custom UAS systems with large budgets, the use of budgetary consumer available UASs for these purposes is still in its infancy. This research suggests that budgetary and accessible consumer UAS systems can be used to benefit social groups that lack access to high-quality geographic data. Ultimately, the lower barrier-of-entry of cost, skill, and ease of access, allows research to be conducted that previously would have been unfeasible. Furthermore, the inclusion of Public Participation GIS can further benefit social groups through community input and participation with these systems. A systematic review was developed exploring existing studies that pertained to specific criteria that implements the themes of environmental surveying, the impact on a social group, and the use of a UAS. The systematic review is supplemented by survey responses from the authors of the specific studies explored in this research. Based on the explored studies, budgetary UASs has the potential to benefit social groups through environmental surveying that may have been previously limited by the previously higher barrier-of-entry. However, the most notable results of this research suggest that this field is still in its infancy and themes that pertain to this research are not always considered in the original explored studies. Furthermore, privacy and security concerns are seldom addressed. While the growth of this technology has significant potential, there are still many factors to consider when deploying these systems as means of data collection in communities.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2022

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Hawthorne, Timothy

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Sociology

Degree Program

Applied Sociology

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0009438; DP0027161

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0027161

Language

English

Release Date

November 2022

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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Included in

Sociology Commons

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