Drones will aid emerging nations' economic development

Significance

In developed markets, UAV consumers or hobbyist operators far outnumber commercial operators, but the usage differs in the developing world. In developing countries, the price of a UAV typically exceeds 10,000 dollars, stifling hobbyists. In contrast, usage for sustainable development programmes is surging.

Impacts

• Prices of UAVs will drop but lower-cost models will nonetheless remain scarce in emerging markets, keeping the hobbyist market stagnant.
• Job opportunities in the UAV sector in developing markets will largely be in services, including software development and data collection.
• Use for tracking and monitoring usage will grow beyond wildlife and natural disasters to observe and manage population movements.
• Drones will be very useful to developing nations in city planning and on coastlines for waste management, shipping and weather forecasting.
• UN peacekeeping and humanitarian operations are making more use of drones and this will rise.