2nd MUSE Workshop - Assess UAM social and environmental impacts with our performance framework and toolset

Join the MUSE second stakeholder workshop on 6 March 2025 in Madrid to discover how we measure the impacts of urban air mobility services on citizens' quality of life.

With simulations and scenario presentations, the MUSE partners are testing the tools they have developed over the last 15 months, and are looking for YOUR feedback: have your say to shape the future of aerial services in European cities!

When investigations become services

The MUSE partners have defined scenarii for operations of aerial services in the city of Madrid. From parcel delivery to medical logistics and loitering missions, all aspects of potential flights have been considered: location and overflown area, population density and existing infrastructure, trajectory and direction, vehicle type, flight period, etc. These scenario have been defined based on current context and available studies, including consumption habits and demand, technological innovations, urban systems and priorities. External stakeholders were involved in the scenario design, sharing feedback on their experience and needs to provide efficient solutions. Simulations were then run to play these scenarii in a digital framework, enabling the test use of tools developed previously by the MUSE partners to assess aerial services’ impacts on citizens’ quality of life.

In the MUSE second workshop, results of the simulations will be presented and discussed, as well as the relevance of the methods and basic inputs used. Join to hear about first test results and share your views on priorities when it comes to monitor aerial services in urban environments, as well as to be aware of observed impacts!

What is it they are testing?

The first phase of the MUSE project was the description of performance indicators enabling the assessment of flights’ impacts for urban residents. These indicators were based on existing research results and stakeholder consultation, including the MUSE 1st workshop in November 2023. They covered noise consequences of low altitude flights, visual disturbance, privacy concerns, wildlife and air quality, and economic aspects such as service access equity but also jobs and real estate. They were refined with cross-cutting areas, finetuning aerial services’ impacts related to subjective perceptions, depending from factors such as age, gender, occupational status, etc. The set of indicators and cross-cutting areas defined built up a performance framework, based on which assessment tools and methods were then developed.

After defining requirements for the tools calculating performance indicators, several modules were developed in the project’s second part:

A trajectory generation module
A noise emission and propagation module
A visual pollution module
An earth observation images processing module
A population exposure module

The outputs of these modules are integrated with data exchange across modules through data repositories respecting defined standards. An interactive dashboard enables the visualisation of all outputs, facilitating the exploration and interpretation of the obtained indicators and metrics, to support analytical reasoning in the context of multi-stakeholder collaborative decision-making processes.

Why and How?

It is fundamental to prepare a framework for the operations of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) above populated areas, as thousands of them are already flying in cities every year, as observed by police services in several European cities. Quantify their impacts for everyone, and citizens in priority, is a first step in the process of setting up that framework. And MUSE is a forerunner project in that sense: come and help us make out the best of the work already done to deliver outputs really supporting a more environment-friendly society in the near future.

Environmental health specialists, Sociologists, Psychologists, Passengers & Pedestrians representatives, Urban planners, City & Region authorities, Drone users (public & private), U-space designers & service providers, Drone operators, Drone manufacturers, Vertiport manufacturers & operators, ATM & UTM experts, all stakeholders involved in the sector are welcome and much needed in that workshop.

The MUSE partners are looking forward to a fruitful collaboration during this upcoming workshop, which will take place in Madrid, Spain, on 6 March 2025!