Page 28 - AAA NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2018 Online Magazine

for the benefit of its citizens. By gathering urban flow data from top of a building to a larger system of multiple
cities like Paris or Beijing and using advanced modelling soft- landing pads that could redefine the purpose
ware, Vincent Loubière - Airbus’ Director of City Integration and and function of motorways.
Infrastructure Development for UAM- and his team of designers,
urbanists, architects and sociologists can simulate and under- Redefining Traffic Management
stand how people move around to develop sustainable urban eyond working out infrastructure
development strategies. requirements, the unit, through
Isabel Del Pozo, Head of Airspace
“Not only have cities become more densely populated in recent BManagement, is exploring solutions
decades, they have also become increasingly centralised as that will ensure this new era of flight operates
more people travel to, from and around a central point,” says safely and efficiently in the urban airspace.
Loubière. This is putting a tremendous strain on ground trans- “The existing air traffic management system
portation. “Cities have been trying to fine-tune these systems is tailored to commercial flights for fixed-wing
to alleviate the issues, but without major changes, the scope aircraft. It still relies on voice communica-
is limited.” tion and human-centred task execution,” she
says. “We’re already close to exceeding its
Urban air mobility could bring an entirely new dimension to capacity, and that’s just for manned flights.
the way we live and, in the process, reshape city planning. By When we introduce autonomous vehicles
experimenting with virtual models, Loubière and his colleagues during the next decade, traffic will increase
are beginning to design convenient, sustainable systems that considerably.”
could seamlessly integrate into an existing city infrastructure.
Of course, some new elements will be required, which is why the Del Pozo wants to create more intelligent,
team is looking at different types of ‘vertiports’ – an airport for autonomous and decentralised traffic man-
VTOL vehicles. This could range from a single landing pad on agement solutions that support operations in

28 | November/December 2018 www.GBP.com.sg/AAA