Between 13 and 15 May 2024 the municipality of Egaleo, Athens hosted back-to-back meetings and field tests for European-funded projects ImAFUSA and RefMap. Both projects are related to Sustainable Air Mobility, and have several common partners, which allowed for the exploration of synergies and cross-feeding among tasks.
BRU-Iscte is a partner in RefMap, involved in the definition of a Minimum Viable Product and identification of a business value proposition and leading the development of new aviation business models. BRU-Iscte is the coordinator of ImAFUSA and leads the development of indicators for measuring Urban Air Mobility (UAM) impact and capacity assessment and building guidelines for stakeholders’ decision-making.
BRU-Iscte’s integrated researcher Sofia Kalakou and research assistants Helena Almeida, Margarida Lopes and Margarida Santos played an important role in the meetings and field tests that were conducted in Egaleo to capture citizens’s perceptions of UAM. Other BRU-Iscte researchers involved in these projects are Catarina Marques, Fernando Ferreira, João Guerreiro and Renato Pereira.
ImAFUSA focuses on evaluating factors that influence citizens’ acceptance of UAM. The project’s results will help Local Authorities and other stakeholders deploy socially acceptable and beneficial UAM in cities.
RefMap aims to reduce the environmental impact of air travel for airlines and Unmanned Aerial Systems (drones) by optimizing flight trajectories. Using environmental data, such as wind, noise, CO2 and non-CO2 emissions, RefMap’s analytics platform will lead to evidence-based Green policy making in the aviation sector and new aviation business models in line with the EU’s Green Agenda.
