Drone environmental inspections in China

12/02/18 | Tags: Social, Innovations, Regulations

Dongguan in southern China’s Guangdong Province is known as a the biggest manufacturing hub. According to the news agency Xinhua, the number of registered factories exceeded 900 000 last year. Due to the fact that, environmental inspections are difficult to conduct from the ground, the idea of using drones appeared. 

Drones used in Dongguan was co-developed by Shenzhen-based SciflyTech and Guangdong IntelFlight UAV Ltd. UAVs were equipped with high-precision gas sensors, which can detect up to eight pollutant in the air, such as volatile organic chemicals, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.

The inspections started after an unpleasant smell had been reported to the authorities. Data gathered during mission helps to create a map, where areas with the highest volatile organic compounds emissions are indicated as red dots. Thanks to that solution, there was possibility to identify and punish polluting industries.

South China Post announced that drone technology helps to decrease level of pollution in Dongguan to close to central Paris. Drones were also already deployed in Beijing, Shanxi and Hebei provinces in order to investigate polluting industries which enhance the smog.

Source: scmp.com