Agapiou, A (2020) Drones in construction: An international review of the legal and regulatory landscape. Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers: Management, Procurement and Law, 174(3), pp. 118-125. ISSN 17514304
Abstract
Increasingly, construction companies are using drone technology for a variety of purposes, including conducting aerial surveys and monitoring the activities of staff and subcontractors on the construction worksite. As the technology develops, newly adopted drone laws and the application of current laws to drone use are areas of concern as governments grapple to regulate the operators, manufacturers and systems. While the commercial benefits of using drones on the construction site are not fully understood or realised, companies need to keep abreast of changes to the legislation and regulations that govern drone usage. This paper reviews the regulatory and legal schemes for drone operation within the construction industry in the USA, the UK, Japan, Australia and Hong Kong. Drone technology, infrastructure, regulations and standards are continually evolving, with collaborative research and development across all these areas. While this offers exciting opportunities to private and public sectors worldwide, such rapid change and growth is a challenge for regulators, to ensure that regulations and infrastructures are in place in time to manage and meet these changes. The proposed research agenda offers a guide for future research on the legal aspects of drone operation for the construction sphere.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | codes of practice & standards; communications & control system; contracts & law |
| Index terms: | codes of practice, monitoring, construction industry, Hong Kong, Australia, regulator, public sector, regulation, control system, research and development, subcontractor, drone, research agenda, legislation, manufacturer, survey, construction company, Japan, construction site |
| Subjects: | monitoring and control, industry analysis, regulatory law, administrative law, political science, sociology, control systems, data collection methods, work location, Geography, automation and robotics, research management, practitioner, organization, legal systems |
| Topics: | Site Management, Digital Applications, Governance, Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Legal Issues, Geographical Context |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here