Management of Urban Air Mobility for Sustainable and Smart Cities: The Case of a Vertiport Network in Lisbon, Portugal, Using a User-Centred Approach

• Autor(a) principal: Gouveia, Marta Luísa Alcobia Camaño Nobre
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/13039
• topic: Urban Mobility; Advanced Air Mobility; Drone; Flying Car; Hybrid and Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing; On-Demand Mobility; Smart Cities; Sustainable Mobility; Unmanned Aerial Vehicle; Unmanned Aircraft Systems; Unmanned Traffic Management; Urban Accessibility and Connectivity; Urban Air Mobility; Urban Air Traffic Management; Urban Airspace; Urban Logistics; Vertiports; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia Aeronáutica

This Dissertation focuses on urban mobility three-dimensional (3D). Whilst prioritizing the development of sustainable mobility and smart cities, this study aims to provide conditions and practical tools to promote change in people's lives for the better and reverse global climate change. Currently, the transportation sector accounts for roughly 16 per cent of all annual greenhouse gases emissions in the world. In particular, the increase in urban road traffic has intensified pollution and noise in cities, deteriorating the quality of life of the citizens who inhabit them. Obviously, it is necessary to promote an innovative and rapid change in urban mobility. In this sense, airspace could ease this increase in urban movements by complementing traditional and emerging land transport systems. Innovation in urban mobility could occur by integrating urban air mobility (UAM) in every city in the world. Yet, UAM reveals a gap regarding the involvement of this technology with people, which interestingly represents the key to long-term success. In this way, by developing a consistent, people-centred UAM, we would spur world progress by changing the way we all travel in cities. At the same time, we would be one step closer to driving a third global mobility revolution and a new world of accessibility. However, the best opportunities for innovation are not only in creating new technologies that enable UAM but also in the ecosystem they together produce: vertiport networks. So, this study proposes to embed vertiport networks in cities using a user-centric design. As there is a lack of this type of research in Portugal, this Dissertation uses a conceptual approach to analyze the logistics and feasibility of integrating vertiport networks in cities by implementing a living lab in the capital of this country, Lisbon. This approach incorporates a user-centric design based on the ongoing engagement of Portuguese citizens in the decision-making process alongside a parallel interaction with five different stakeholders (specifically, ANA Airports of Portugal, NAV Portugal, ANAC Portugal, the Lisbon City Council, and the Government of Portugal). As a result, a three-step roadmap is proposed to implement a vertiport network in the Portuguese capital. This proposal has the virtue of supporting future advanced discussions to bring UAM to Portugal and humanizing UAM's technology in order to narrow the existent gap between the scientific community, public authorities, professional actors (i.e., the industry) and consumers (i.e., people). Lastly, to drive positive and meaningful global change in urban mobility through UAM, we must inspire people by considering their needs and concerns and then call them to act now. Because, in the end, both sustainable urban mobility and smart cities start foremost with the daily habits of each of us.