The Humanitarian Use of Drones as an Emerging Technology for Emerging Needs

Abstract

In 2014, the Red Cross facilitated a humanitarian exploration of eight emerging technologies, including drones, with the vision that they can help strengthen resilience in urban communities. Nearly 1000 collaborators were engaged, including at-risk community members, technologists, business leaders, government officials, academics, researchers, humanitarians and other stakeholders, through this global dialogue. The results define Eight Criteria for Resilience-Strengthening Solutions, and five key recommendations based on community-level requests and humanitarian expertise. This chapter explains how emerging technologies were chosen, the many ways they can help urban dwellers cope with emergencies; drones were identified for temporarily restoring communications networks and delivering critical relief items such as medicines, post-disaster. Next, the chapter provides some remarks on integrating drones in humanitarian responses. Finally, it examines current humanitarian drone use and how this fits with the recommendations made by the global dialogue.

The first part of this chapter has been based on the report “A vision for the Humanitarian Use of Emerging Technology for Emerging Needs: Strengthening Urban Resilience”, published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the American Red Cross in 2015.