the role of unmanned aerial vehicles in future smart cities

The idea of expanding smart cities in the future has come to the minds of advanced societies as an efficient solution to solve current and future problems, which will play a very vital role in urban planning. the current research was conducted to identify the role of unmanned aerial vehicles in future smart cities. the present research was conducted in a mixed (qualitative-quantitative) method. the participants of the qualitative part, which was implemented based on the method of thematic analysis, were 14 experts, including specialized and experienced managers in the fields of urban security, urban and interurban transportation, road and urban development, aviation organization and aviation industries, and the information and communication technology organization of greater tehran cities until reaching theoretical saturation and in the quantitative part, all the expert experts of the relevant devices, numbering 134 people, using cochran's formula and targeted sampling method, the number of 99 people they were selected as sample members. the reliability coefficient of the qualitative part was recorded by the method of two coders with the final result (83%) and the reliability of the quantitative part was recorded with cronbach's alpha coefficient with the final result (0.91). maxqda software was used for qualitative data analysis and spss software was used for quantitative data analysis. the findings showed that in the process of explaining the role of unmanned aerial vehicles in future smart cities; there are 5 inclusive themes, 16 organizing themes and 58 basic themes. the results showed that unmanned aerial vehicles can play a significant role in creating future smart cities through 1- intelligent air transportation, 2- agile monitoring and inspection, 3- smart urban and citizen services, and 4- smart law enforcement. the validation of the findings in the quantitative section also showed that all the identified motifs are valid and the relevant tools will be effective in the management of smart cities in the future.