Unmanned aircraft (UAVs, RPAs or drones) are nothing new; these kinds of aircraft have been used as aerial targets to test weapons for more than a century and, indeed, the popular term ‘drone’ was coined by the British military in reference to the sound that these devices made. This is demonstrated by the fact that they were mentioned at the Convention on International Civil Aviation in Chicago, in 1944, which saw the creation of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO); in fact, Article 8 prohibited the use of unmanned aircraft without the express authorisation of each state.

Spain is one of the most active countries in terms of numbers of AESA-registered operators and is also the world’s tenth largest drone manufacturer

However, it was the evolution of microelectronics that enabled the sector to break into the mass market. Since the beginning of the 21st century, drones have been increasingly used by the military, although it was not until this decade that the technology started to become available for civilian use thanks to its gradual reduction in price. The low cost and ease of use of these small remote-controlled aerial vehicles, usually multicopters, has rapidly increased the popularity of their use in both recreational and professional fields. Growth of the sector in the last five years has been exponential, as shown by the number of drone patents issued. This growth is not surprising given that this technology has myriad applications, especially in imaging and photography, cartography and topography, surveillance and security, but also in agriculture, emergency support, environment, infrastructure maintenance, etc.

Spain is one of the most active countries in terms of numbers of AESA-registered operators and is also the world’s tenth largest drone manufacturer according to the Global Trends of Unmanned Aerial Systems report published by the Danish Technological Institute in 2019. Ineco pioneered the use of this technology for bridge inspections in 2015.

Ineco is actively participating in the SESAR projects related to the development of U-space: TERRA, IMPETUS and DOMUS

First steps

Drones also pose risks, of course, especially if they are operated in residential areas, controlled airspace close to manned aircraft or when drones are flown out of sight of the pilot on the ground. These hazards need to be carefully considered for both recreational and, especially, professional use: they include device failure, loss of control link, in-flight hacking and loss of the navigation or traffic separation systems.

For this reason, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has stipulated that drones with a take-off weight exceeding 150 kg must undergo a certification process, similar to that for manned aircraft, for both manufacture and operation. However, lighter drones, which are not intended to carry people on board, are not subject to such rigorous safety mechanisms. Consequently, their components and manufacturing are less robust, especially in the case of drones manufactured in large production runs, and standards are more appropriate for toys than aircraft.

In order to minimise the risks, a few years ago, the member states of the European Union began to restrict drone operations through regulations. In Spain, Law 18/2014 regulated the use of drones for the first time, limiting their operations to a height of 120 metres above the ground, prohibiting use near airports and controlled traffic regions (CTRs), in cities and areas with high concentrations of people, and allowing only flights within visual line of sight (VLOS), that is, less than 500 metres from the pilot on the ground. And, of course, drones must be remotely piloted (RPAs) and not operate autonomously.

This regulation greatly limited the type and complexity of drone operations, so three years later Royal Decree 1036/2017 was published to make the development of the sector compatible with safe operation. The new standard still allowed for simple operations, but also more complex ones with prior authorisation by the Spanish Aviation Safety Agency (AESA).

To obtain authorisation, a safety study must be carried out, in addition to specific training and equipment to limit the risk, as well as coordination with those affected, if any, for example, air navigation service providers in the event of operations in controlled airspace. Ineco, in the context of the Ministry of Public Works’ Transport and Infrastructure Innovation Plan, has carried out these kinds of safety studies to obtain the authorisation required to perform complex piloting projects such as the recording of data from radio navigation systems in airports.

European regulations

Operating requirements in different European countries vary widely. To alleviate these regulatory differences, the EU has published a new regulation that divides operations into three categories (open, specific and certified), depending on the complexity of the operation, in order to harmonise requirements in all countries and facilitate the provision of services in any member state.

In short, it is now possible to carry out almost any kind of operation with drones in any environment, but only if operations are not carried out simultaneously. This means that if demand continues to grow as expected, it will be necessary to coordinate flights to maintain safety. To make this great development of drone operations possible, the EU, in its Warsaw Declaration of 2016, agreed on the need to develop the concept of U-space to allow safe operation of multiple drones at low altitude (below 150 metres) and especially in urban environments.

U-space will make it possible to coordinate drone operations so that they can be carried out simultaneously

U-space is a set of services, technologies and procedures to allow the safe and efficient operation of a large number of drones. The conceptual and technological development of these services is being carried out through the Single European Sky ATM Research programme (SESAR), as the EU considers it vital to provide an adequate environment to exploit all of the benefits that drones can bring to society. It will make it possible to coordinate drone operations so that they can be carried out simultaneously. However, the level of coordination will vary depending on the risk and density of this kind of aerial vehicle in the areas in which they are intended to operate; for this reason, the CORUS project has defined different types of airspace for drones: X, simple operations (VLOS) without coordination; and Y, complex operations in simple environments, so they will only require prior coordination of paths through flight plans, and Z, highly complex operations (urban-Zu, airports-Za) that require coordination in real time due to the risks to people and the number of operations.

Ineco is actively participating in SESAR projects related to the development of U-space: it is heading up the TERRA project, which is responsible for defining the ground technologies needed to support the provision of services, is also participating in the IMPETUS projects, whose purpose is to design information systems for the use of drones, and is involved in the DOMUS demonstration project, led by ENAIRE.

EVOLUTION OF THE SECTOR IN SPAIN

Activities with RPAS

The Innovation Plan for Transport and Infrastructure aims to achieve greater economic and social profitability of public and private investments in Spain, as well as attract foreign investment.

Ineco’s recently-created General Management of Transformation, Internationalization and Innovation will be in charge of preparing the document, which aims to promote the digital economy in Spain. In the words of Íñigo de la Serna, minister of Public Works, “this plan will be a fundamental milestone in the government’s commitment to smart technologies.”

Boost for BIM at the 5th meeting of the Commission 

The Innovation Plan is in line with the government of Spain’s support for the development of BIM, a work methodology that manages the entire life cycle of buildings and infrastructure using computer tools.

The Ministry of Public Works hosted the fifth meeting of the BIM Commission, led by Ineco, which aims to promote the use of BIM, increase awareness of public administrations of the establishment of BIM requirements in infrastructure tenders, set a timetable for adapting the regulations for widespread application of the requirements, develop national standards to allow uniform application, and implement an academic training plan for this methodology in Spain, as well as facilitate its incorporation into programmes of study. The minister emphasized that the European Union has urged Spain to incorporate this methodology to try to bring about a regulatory change in procurement and tendering processes.

There is a generally accepted idea that capacity increases with the application levels of the ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) signalling system; in other words, ERTMS Level 2 allows for greater capacity than Level 1, which in turn has greater capacity than a line with a traditional signalling system such as ASFA, which is deployed in the Spanish network.

However, there is currently no harmonized method in European or international regulations for assessing the impact of ERTMS deployment on railway line capacity: for this reason, Ineco, with its extensive experience and expertise in this field (see IT46), carried out an innovation project in 2016 with the aim of developing one. The conclusions reached in this project make it possible to propose improvements across the entire network or on specific lines in order to optimise capacity.

Why?

This qualitative and quantitative assessment method will serve as a basis for the development of different types of technical studies. First, as part of strategic railway plans to define which infrastructure actions are most appropriate, how to deploy or not to deploy ERTMS, and at which level, implications for rolling stock, etc.

This method makes it possible to assess the impact of the deployment of ERTMS on the capacity of a railway line

The method is also useful for optimizing the detailed design of the ERTMS functions of a railway line or network, taking into account aspects such as the network’s capacity and regularity. Lastly, this method can be used to calculate the capacity of a section after the deployment of the ERTMS system. In addition, it could be considered as a basis for the future development of a specific module in a tool for complete calculation of railway network capacity data.

Results

For the initial application of the method, the values of a typical high-speed network with a homogeneous fleet of passenger trains were taken as a starting point.

The data was divided into three categories: fixed data that cannot be changed in the network being studied, semi-fixed data that corresponds to the aspects of ERTMS functions common to most ERTMS projects, and variable design data within capacity analysis.

It should be noted that this classification may vary depending on the type of study performed. For example, line block sections may be fixed in cases in which only ERTMS will be installed, or variable in cases where some action on the line, in addition to ERTMS deployment, is allowed.

The variable data used in the study was: movement authority, the ERTMS braking algorithm, speed restrictions and gradient. The conclusions generated by the study included an improvement of 9.67% in time between trains by installing ERTMS Level 2 instead of Level 1 on the same section of line. However, applying the qualitative analysis, it is unlikely that this improvement would occur on a network with different characteristics.

Its application helps to formulate strategic plans to define which actions are most appropriate, how to deploy or not to deploy ERTMS, and at which level

Some conclusions were also reached regarding the impact on capacity with respect to other much more detailed characteristics of ERTMS, such as inhibition of the service brake in the ERTMS braking curve algorithm which results in an improvement of 0.51% in time between trains in this network.

The number of trains per hour is one of the most important characteristics to take into account in most railway operations, on both new and upgraded lines: the greater the number of trains that can circulate, the more profitable the infrastructure will be. This calculation is important in different project phases: in the strategic  decision stage (which sections of the network to upgrade, which ERTMS levels to install, etc.) as well as in more detailed phases, in which it is necessary to know the exact number of trains per hour to include in the business case or design ERTMS functionality to optimise this capacity.

Finally, it was also possible to identify some scenarios in which the ERTMS deployment reduces capacity, for example, the large impact that temporary speed restrictions in Level 1 can have. This demonstrates the need to carry out technical studies based on this method of assessing the impact of ERTMS on capacity before defining the actions required to upgrade a railway network.

The Maltese islands, with their extremely high population density (the highest in the EU and the eighth highest in the world), suffer congestion problems and traffic jams due to the extensive use of private passenger cars. The islands have no railway network, however maritime and aviation are important modes of transport both to and from mainland Europe and between the islands. Croatia, on the continent, is almost 180 times larger than Malta by area, but has a far lower population density. The country’s highways, roads and railway lines are currently undergoing a process of renovation and modernisation, as are river transport routes on large inland waterways such as the Danube and the Sava.

There are significant differences between Malta and Croatia in terms of their size and population; however both are currently in the process of planning the future growth of their transport networks, crucial for ensuring the proper working of their economies.

Malta and Croatia commissioned the services of Ineco experts, who prepared their respective National Transport Models as a crucial part of their medium and long-term planning strategies. In Malta, the National Master Plan was also developed

Both countries commissioned the services of Ineco experts, who prepared their respective National Transport Models to support their medium and long-term planning strategies. In Malta, the National Master Plan was also developed.

Using the leading software tools on the market (Aimsun, Legion, Visum, EMME, TransCAD, CUBE, WITNESS, HCS, ArcGIS and Viriato, among others), the transport modelling consultant team of the company develop models which depict reality and enable forecasts to be made, offering a clear, simple representation of complex realities. In this way, governments and transport authorities avail of a highly effective decision-making tool and are also able to compare the possible effects of these decisions in different scenarios and time horizons.

And there’s more. Models and simulations can take many different forms and be developed at different scales, from the effects of a new traffic light at a crossroads, to the demand analysis of a new highway or airport affecting an entire region or a country. They can also serve a range of purposes, from estimating traffic or demand to identifying weaknesses in the design of all kinds of infrastructure and public spaces (for example, spaces causing queues or congestion in stations or which prevent the correct operation of ground handling vehicles on airport runways); they can even be used to study the punctuality of a high-speed railway line.

These examples are taken from some of Ineco’s real assignments from recent years, which also include “tailor-made” models for specific projects.

Malta

On the Maltese archipelago, which is made up of five islands (Malta, Gozo, Comino, Cominotto and Filfla, of which only the first three are inhabited), the most widely used form of transport is the private car. The level of car ownership in the country, at 759 vehicles per thousand people, is one of the highest in the European Union, as are the density of its road network, at 762 kilometres per 100 km², and its population density, at 1,325 people per km², compared to the European average of 117. And all of this in a territory of just 316 km².

In such a unique context, the Maltese government established the islands’ need for short, medium and long-term transport planning, which would require thorough preliminary analysis. In 2014, the through transport authority, Transport Malta, the government ran a public tender to carry out the analysis. The winning bidder was the consortium made up of Ineco and the Italian company Systematica with the support of the Maltese firm ADI Associates, tasked with developing the strategic environmental assessment of the proposed measures.

The consortium’s first task was the development of a model, using the specialised CUBE software. The model served as the support for the National Strategy and the Transport Master Plan 2025. All modes of transport (land, maritime and aviation; public and private) were analysed in different scenarios, “do-nothing” and “do-minimum”, within a range of timeframes.  The reference points used were the years 2020 and 2025, with 2050 also being used to provide a long-term view; a comparison was drawn between the effects of various changes to the transport network and services. The model particularly illustrates the effects of the tested measures on congestion, modal split and the external impacts of traffic (accidents, GHGs and pollutant emissions).

The laborious process of creating the model has assisted in accurately quantifying the issues currently affecting the different modes of transport and has provided understanding of their causes. The results are shown in the Transport Master Plan 2025 and the medium and long-term objectives of the National Transport Strategy 2050. The Plan compares four possible scenarios: “do-nothing”, “do-minimum” and the “do-something” scenarios “1” and “2”. The “do-something” interventions consist in measures to restrain the use of private cars and increased support public transport and alternative modes (walking, cycling, etc.), with the first proposing moderate restraints and the second being stricter. The purpose of these scenarios is to assess the combined effect of various measures on Malta’s transport system as a whole.

For example, data analysis reveals that congestion, especially on the five radial roads connecting the capital Valletta with the rest of the island, would be most greatly reduced in “do-something 2” scenario, the most restrictive option.

Croacia

After joining the European Union in July 2013, Croatia undertook to review and update its long-term transport plan, which dated from 1999. To that end, an international consortium of five companies (PTV Group, leading the consortium, and PNZ, Ineco, Promel and the University of Zagreb) was commissioned to prepare the National Transport Model for the Republic of Croatia, intended to accompany and support the development of the new National Transport Strategy.

The Croatian government, through its Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, would therefore possess a valuable tool supporting medium and long-term decision-making, for planning connections to the rest of the European Union and domestic transport. Work began in 2014 and the model was developed over the following 24 months. Using 2013 as a base year and with three forecast time horizons (2020, 2030 and 2040), all modes of passenger and freight transport (road, rail, public road transprot, non-motorised transport, maritime, inland waterways and air transport) were analysed under different scenarios with and without implementation of transport strategies, measures and projects in the transport network.

A multi-modal 4-step model with generation, distribution, mode choice and assignmet on the network for passenger and freight traffic was developed. Different approaches for both passenger and freight  traffic were used to better represent and model their particular characteristics. The simulation was fed with data such as the costs and travel times for different modes, socioeconomic data, road network capacity and passenger behaviour information, obtained through a household survey carried out specifically for the project in 2015. The survey revealed, for example, that different parts of the country have different travel behaviour patterns. On account of this, the model incorporated a distinction between the Continental and Adriatic regions.

For freight transport, the complexity and heterogeneity of the sector were taken into account. For this reason, a highly disaggregated approach was used to calculate freight volumes, based on the origin and destination of homogenous commodity types. The main input data were the transport network data, socio-economic data, the national production of each commodity, import and export data and operational and cost parameters, among others; models were developed for both domestic and external freight flows (including import, export and transit).

Once the model was calibrated and validated, the different timeframes of 2020, 2030 and 2040 were simulated in two scenarios: “do-minimum” scenario to point out the bottlenecks and gaps in the transport system, and “do-something” scenario including the measures proposed in the National Transport Strategy. Obtaining results such as traffic flows in the different networks, the volume/capacity, indicators of accessibility to major cities, etc. made it possible to assess, formulate and prioritise the influence of different strategic measures for effective and sustainable traffic development on the country.

How can we ensure that a taximeter is reliable or that a nuclear facility is safe, that a bulletproof vest is really bulletproof or that the MOT that reviews a vehicle does not act arbitrarily? In Spain, more than 1,600 entities ensure that many products, procedures and services available in the market comply with the regulations of their respective sector. A Spanish government body, the National Accreditation Entity (ENAC), is responsible for authorising who guarantees the safety of consumers and end users. Entities must renew their accreditation every year, demonstrating that they comply with the strict requirements of independence, rigour and transparency that are required for this work.

Rail lines

The wide range of products and services subject to receiving a certification endorsed by an ENAC entity covers any type of production and different types of entities, such as testing or calibration laboratories, inspectors, or certifiers and environmental verifiers from practically any sector: industry, energy, environment, health, agriculture and food, research, development and innovation, telecommunications, tourism, services, construction, transport, etc.

The inspection activity of Ineco falls within the latter, specifically within railway, and in 2009 it obtained its first ENAC accreditation as an ‘independent safety assessor’ with the number 76/EI058. In 2015, it was renewed and extended to the fields of rolling stock, energy, infrastructure, maintenance and exploitation and traffic management. The company has a multidisciplinary team consisting of professionals accredited by ENAC. The work of the entities certified by ENAC, moreover, is not only valid in Spain, but also in the over 70 countries with which it has mutual recognition agreements, including the European Union, United States, Canada, China, Japan, Australia, Brazil, India, United Arab Emirates and Mexico, amongst others.

Why an independent safety assessment?

In addition to rolling stock, since the beginning of rail at the end of the 19th century, the main rail elements related to safety have been signalling systems, in order to avoid the greatest risk of all: collisions between trains. From manual signals to lights, to digital systems and radio without physical signals on the tracks –as is the case for ERTMS level 2–, the different control, command and signalling systems (ASFA, LZB, ERTMS, etc.) have evolved to become more complex and sophisticated, always with the objective of guaranteeing the safe circulation of trains.

The current rail lines –conventional and high speed–, are very complex infrastructure that consist of a large number of elements and undergo very extensive legal and technical regulation that requires a high degree of specialisation by the inspectors. From the time they are planned until they are commissioned, European and international regulations require verification that each and every one of the elements and subsystems work correctly, from the simplest, such as the ventilation of a tunnel, to the most complex, such as software.

For this purpose, two types of safety study are carried out. On one hand, risk analyses, in which threats are identified that could bring the system to a potentially dangerous situation and work is being carried out on mitigation measures or barriers to avoid them. They can be carried out in any stage of the project and seek to detect the weak points of the system. Moreover, and on a higher level, there is the type of study known as ISA (Independent Safety Assessment). Unlike risk analyses, ISA can only be carried out by an accredited entity. They are essential to guarantee for a third party –the operator or rail authority– that a new line or modification of an existing line is safe and can begin or continue to be used.