(by Filippo Moreschi, lawyer and AIDR partner) In European regulatory terminology, drones - also known as APR (Remotely Piloted Aircraft) - are included in the group of "unmanned" aircraft (UAS - unmanned aircraft system).
The Italian Navigation Code also places them within the notion of aircraft (art. 743) and defines them as “remotely piloted aircraft”.
The drones allow flexibility of use and speed of intervention, an ever higher resolution and precision, a wide availability of surveys and data obtained through sensors, multispectral cameras, thermal cameras, GPS and magnetometers.
For some years the use of drones has also taken hold in the agricultural sector, in two distinct application modes.
The first, most widespread, is the monitoring activity.
It is divided into several moments:
- in a preventive diagnostic phase (assessment of the capacity of the land and its critical areas, control of uncultivated and wooded areas);
- in real-time observation of the state of health of the crop and in the prevention of criticalities and diseases;
- in the consequent capacity for the farmer to plan the quantity and timing of precision interventions (irrigation, phytosanitary action), based on the real needs of the single portion of the field, avoiding massive, uniform and generalized interventions.
The result is a saving of time, work and machines, but above all a lower environmental impact linked to the targeted use of phytosanitary products and water resources.
The second mode of use is the possibility for the drone to carry out tasks in the field, as occurs in the biological fight against plant parasites (for example the corn borer) or in terms of phytosanitary treatments.
On this last aspect it should be remembered that aerial spraying is currently prohibited, as required by art. 13 of Legislative Decree 150/2012 ("implementation of Directive 2009/128 / EC which establishes a framework for community action for the purposes of the sustainable use of pesticides"). The ban provides for limited and detailed exceptions, issued by the Regions or autonomous Provinces. The National Action Plan for the sustainable use of plant protection products (PAN), adopted by Interministerial Decree 22/01/2014, expressly prohibits aerial spraying in areas deemed sensitive such as, among others, livestock and bee farms , of fish and molluscs and the land where organic or biodynamic agriculture is practiced. The interpretation of these derogations, over the years, has been rather stringent and limited, for the most part, to the use of helicopters for the distribution of plant protection products.
The draft revision of the Plan, published on the Mipaaf website and currently being approved, reaffirms the ban on the use of drones for phytosanitary treatments (point A.3.10). At the same time, however, it opens up to experimentation, in light of the European Parliament resolution of 12/02/2019, which recognizes the potential associated with the use of intelligent technology and precision agriculture to better manage plant protection products.
The flight of civilian drones is subject to complex legislation, where European and national provisions intersect. The inclusion of drones in the broader group of aircraft determines the competence of ENAC - National Civil Aviation Body which, with its own regulations, identifies the categories of drones, the types of operations and establishes the safety conditions of the flight (security).
At the European level, EU Reg. 1139/2018 has placed EASA - European Union Agency for Aviation Safety at the top of the system, identifying its tasks and dictating common rules for civil aviation. Commission Regulation no. 945/2019 regulates the technical safety standards of drones (safety). The subsequent Commission Reg. No. 947/2019, in force from 31/12/2020, governs registration, operational limitations and rules applicable to operators and pilots, and replaces and standardizes the national provisions, replacing, on this point, the related ENAC regulations.
The European regulation recently cited establishes the maximum height of 25 meters from the closest point on the earth's surface as a general limit for the "visual flight" of drones up to 120 kg (Annex to the Reg., Part A, General provisions, no. . 2).
This rule can be derogated especially in the absence of particular conditions of the ground or terrain or areas intended for flight operations of other aircraft, or densely populated or in any case specifically identified.
In Italy, the D-Flight platform provides low-altitude air traffic management services for remotely piloted aircraft. Through the collaboration with ENAC, D-Flight is a portal that makes available to users the registration of drones in the Italian database and the assignment of the unique identification code, as well as the retrieval of useful information to fly with drones safely in compliance with current regulations.
The maps available on D-Flight illustrate the limitations on the height and use of drones throughout the country, indicating, in particular, the prohibited areas or where the limit is lower than the general limit of 120 meters.
It is worth underlining that the areas where the use of drones is prohibited (limit of 0 meters above ground level) includes natural parks and areas subject to wildlife protection. These are territories on which national or regional regulations prohibit overflight.
The measure, if on the one hand it is understandable, on the other hand can concretely represent a brake on the great technological support that drones can give in these areas, especially in consideration of the difficulty of farming in places of high landscape value and, often, of special orographic peculiarity.
The recent Mipaaf decree of 30/06/2020 has finally implemented the provision of the Unified Wine Law which provides for the enhancement of heroic and historical vineyards. Heroic vineyards, in particular, are defined as "vineyards ... located in areas where the orographic conditions create impediments to mechanization or with particular landscape or environmental value, as well as vineyards located in small islands" (art. 2 decree).
We can understand how, especially in these areas, the use of the drone can contribute to the safeguarding and survival of a viticulture conducted in extreme conditions, concretely supporting the work of man.
And yet, many of the so-called heroic vineyards are located in areas qualified as nature reserves or national parks, where the flight of drones is prohibited. This is the case, for example, of the Cinque Terre, where a famous wine with a Controlled Designation of Origin is produced.
It is therefore desirable that, in the future, with due respect for the environment, and indeed precisely in function of the principles of sustainability and saving of resources that the use of drones can represent, the possibility of using these tools also in these areas is given. valuable. In fact, here more than elsewhere, drones can give precious help to farmers and allow the preservation of an invaluable heritage of knowledge, experience and production traditions.