Vultures are among the most threatened bird guilds on the planet and have a unique functional role within ecosystems. They are therefore subject to increasing research interest, calling for standardised study approaches and monitoring methods. The use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) is rapidly gaining popularity in ecological research due to technological advances, affordability, and accessibility. This study reviews the existing peer-reviewed publications and grey literature on the responses of European vultures and other comparable species to UASs, and summarises the types of UAS use, their potential disturbance effects on vultures, and the resulting inter- and intra-specific interactions. Our goal was to assess the potential effects of UASs and to provide practical recommendations to optimise their safe use in vulture conservation and research. We acknowledge the potential of UASs to increase research efficiency and reduce research effort, time, and financial cost. Owing to the absence of sufficient data on long-term disturbance effects, we advocate the precautionary principle and offer a set of species-tailored practical recommendations to limit the potential negative effects of UASs and maximise their value in conservation management. We urge that the physiological and long-term impacts on vulture reproduction are considered and call for standardised monitoring protocols and controls on UAS use. Our conclusions and recommendations are particularly aimed at researchers working on vulture conservation and restoration projects worldwide.

As the interest in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) has increased, so has the interest in the application of these systems for use in agriculture. A variety of sensors, including Multi-Spectral, Near-Infrared, Thermal, and True-Color have the potential to benefit farmers when mounted to a UAS. But as this is an emerging field, there is little data available to demonstrate their use for early detection of plant diseases in crop production. In 2016, a preliminary study was launched to examine the potential of using aerial imagery from UAS to detect diseases in soybean crops. Two irrigated fields in Alabama were selected: Experiment 1, a 50-hectare field, and Experiment 2, a 5-hectare field. Each trial consisted of replicated plots using two foliar fungicide treatments and an untreated control. Aerial imagery (multi-spectral and true-color) was collected on a biweekly basis during this study. Using multi-spectral imagery, both the Normalized Difference Vegetative Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Red Edge Index (NDRE) were generated and compared to direct observations in the field. Disease severity of soybean rust, charcoal rot and Cercospora leaf blight were monitored on a biweekly basis and correlated to the UAS imagery. Preliminary results indicated plant stress can be detected using UAS imagery. In Experiment 1, stress associated with charcoal rot was visible in the NDRE imagery. This was of interest because at the time of flight, while it was noted that plants were yellowing, the root and stem disease itself had not been identified by direct observation. In Experiment 2, soybean rust was observed by direct observation and in both the NDRE and NDVI imagery. Soybean rust did have a negative impact on yield in Experiment 2, however severe drought conditions may have negated the yield loss likely caused by the development of charcoal rot in Experiment 1.

Civil and military unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operations are currently subject to restrictions that put major limits on their use of airspace. There is considerable debate about how to develop the safe, secure and efficient integration of UAS into non-segregated airspace and aerodromes. This paper examines a necessary safety aspect. Airlines and their passengers would obviously ask, “Is it still safe with all these unmanned aircraft around?” The spotlight must be on Air Traffic Control Systems as High Reliability Organizations (HRO). That status comes from industry characteristics: focus on safety, effective use of technological improvements, learning from feedback from accidents/incidents, and an underpinning safety culture. The safety of ATC Systems has improved dramatically: accidents are now the product of rare and complex ‘messes’ of multiple failures. It is therefore a major challenge to preserve the HRO status by ensuring at least current safety performance. The analysis sketches feasible processes of policy decision-making and safety analyses. Key factors are policies on UAS equipage and airspace usage, implementation of a Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS)-variant appropriate for UAS, use of an ‘Equivalent Level of Safety’ philosophy, small datalink latencies, proven HRO safety and learning cultures, and stress testing of system resilience by real-time simulations.