SURVEYING DRONE USERS IN GEOGRAPHY

Inexpensive drones with easy-to-use, high precision technologies (e.g., sensors, GPS unit, mission planning software, etc.) have equipped geographers with the capacity to collect high-quality geospatial data at the desired frequency. Drones have begun engaging users from all walks of life, ranging from novices to highly trained geospatial scientists, making it an indispensable part of the geography discipline. However, while drone uses and captured data are becoming ubiquitous in geographies, we hardly know: how drones are a part of work across age group, gender, and ethnicity; how drones have been influencing (i.e., positively or negatively) the discipline; how drones have changed the research, teaching, or the way we experience our soundings; and what future opportunities drones present to geographers? We conducted an online survey to answer these questions. Our study suggests that ~85% of geographers that use drones in research, teaching, or both are white. While only ~30% of female geographers use drones, their ratio is higher (> 75%) at the 18 to 24 years age-group. The traditional faculty and graduate students, almost equal in number (27% and 26%, respectively) cumulatively constitutes > 50% of the population. While the word “drone” undeniably has an overall negative connotation, most users (~38%) prefer it followed by UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle - ~21%) and UAS (unmanned aerial systems, ~19%). Only 22% of geographers have > 6-year drone experience and >86% use it in research that suggests its rapid growth and popularity among geographers. Off-the-shelf and rotary-wing drones (i.e., >75% and ~68%, respectively) are the most desirable, perhaps due to their low cost and easy-to-use. The influence of drones on the geography discipline is considered consistently positive and it has opened a new era of small extent geospatial analyses to answer the question of various geographies.