Land Tenure Documentation and Community Mapping Drones across Informal Settlements

Abstract

The rapid expansion of informal settlements globally presents a profound challenge to urban governance, particularly regarding land tenure security and infrastructural planning. In recent years, community mapping initiatives utilizing unmanned aerial vehicles have emerged as a prominent methodological alternative to conventional land surveying, offering high-resolution geospatial data at unprecedented speeds. However, the environmental sustainability of deploying these technologies in resource-constrained environments remains largely unexamined. This paper presents a comprehensive lifecycle assessment of linking community mapping drones to formal land tenure documentation processes in informal settlements. By evaluating the environmental impacts from raw material extraction and drone manufacturing to operational deployment, data processing, and end-of-life disposal, this study provides empirical evidence on the ecological footprint of participatory geospatial technologies. The analysis reveals that while the operational phase of drone mapping contributes minimally to global warming potential, the manufacturing of drone components, particularly lithium-polymer batteries and specialized optical sensors, introduces significant abiotic depletion and ecotoxicity impacts. Furthermore, the computationally intensive data processing required for orthomosaic generation accounts for a substantial proportion of the total energy demand. The findings suggest that while drone-mediated land tenure documentation significantly enhances socio-economic security for marginalized communities, optimizing battery recycling frameworks and utilizing decentralized renewable energy for data processing are essential to mitigate the associated environmental burdens.