Analyzing the violation of drone regulations in three VGI drone portals across the US, the UK, and France

Drone technology opens the door to major changes and opportunities in our society. But this technology, like many others, needs to be administered and regulated to prevent potential harm to the public. Therefore, national and local governments around the world established regulations for operating drones, which bans drone use from specific locations or limits their operation to qualified drone pilots only. This study reviews the types of restrictions on drone use that are specified in federal drone regulations for the US, the UK, and France, and in state regulations for the US. The study also maps restricted areas and assesses compliance with these regulations by analyzing the spatial contribution patterns to three crowd-sourced drone portals, namely SkyPixel, Flickr, and DroneSpot, relative to restricted areas. The analysis is performed both at the national level and at the state/regional level within each of the three countries, where statistical tests are conducted to compare compliance rates between the three drone portals. This study provides new insight into drone users' awareness of and compliance with drone regulations. This can help governments to tailor information campaigns for increased awareness of drone regulations among drone users and to determine where increased control and enforcement of drone regulations is necessary.