Interior ministry expands local drone response to extreme heat

The interior ministry said Friday it will expand support for local governments' use of drones against extreme heat, focusing on field warnings and surveillance in agricultural land, greenhouses and outdoor workplaces.

Local governments operate 2,584 drones with 3,635 operators. Drones are now being sent to issue heat-safety and rest reminders. Thermal cameras are being used to analyze and respond to urban heat-island effects, while some local governments fly drones over beaches, rivers and neighborhood parks. Wide farmland can make farmers at work difficult to spot because of crops, while drones can quickly search areas that are hard for people to access. In Hwasun County, a heatwave drone patrol uses camera- and loudspeaker-equipped drones during heat alerts to advise farmers working in fields to refrain from outdoor activity.

Daegu has built a digital twin system combining temperature, humidity and wind-speed data to provide localized heat information, and is pursuing early monitoring with drones in areas facing severe heat conditions. Anyang is linking real-time drone footage to its disaster safety situation room for rapid response to heat-related illness. The ministry is also pursuing a project this year to link local-government drone video data to its central disaster safety situation room in areas without reliable power or CCTV.

“As climate change has made disasters such as droughts and heat waves larger and longer-lasting than in the past, rapid field monitoring without blind spots has become more important than ever,” Kim No-gyeong, director general for disaster safety information and communications, said. “We will spare no effort to support local governments in using drones not only for climate-crisis response but at a range of disaster sites.”