Abstract

VARGAS-RAMIREZ, Nicolás  and  PANEQUE-GALVEZ, Jaime. Regulatory challenges for community use of drones in Mexico. Invest. Geog [online]. 2020, n.102, e60007.  Epub Mar 09, 2021. ISSN 2448-7279.  https://doi.org/10.14350/rig.60007.

Drones allow obtaining detailed aerial information more autonomously and economically, compared to other sources of remote sensing. This has motivated the civil and community use of drones around the world, both for audiovisual and cartographic purposes. Therefore, governments have had to legislate its use and address various concerns such as aviation security, privacy and data protection. In Mexico, five Mandatory Circulars were issued (2010-2017) and then an Official Standard (2019). Despite its great potential, the community use of drones has not been debated or incorporated into these regulations. Therefore, the objective of this article is to review the Mexican regulatory framework on drones and analyze their impacts on the community use of said technology. The documentary review and its analysis with communities in central Mexico reveal that the legislation does not favor its community use, particularly when it is for mapping purposes. This limitation is due to diverse bureaucratic and economic requirements, as well as the absence of aeronautical cartography of easy access and consultation. In this situation, we discuss the challenges of incorporating the community use of drones into the regulatory framework. Furthermore, we suggest that airspace is an integral part of the territorial rights of indigenous and local communities, and that its legal recognition would favor its community use. Finally, we suggest that the community use of drones could greatly benefit from a regulatory approach based on the risk of operation, establishing requirements and limitations more in line with the heterogeneity of airspace and its traffic. Much of our analysis is also useful for the civil use of drones in Mexico.

Keywords : legislation on drones; airspace; unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV); air sovereignty; territorial rights.

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