Drone Network Design for Emergency Response in Rural Utah

Rural areas of Utah face significant challenges in providing timely and comprehensive emergency response. Long distances, limited road infrastructure, mountainous and desert terrain, and weather-related disruptions can significantly delay ambulances and rescue teams. These factors often increase response times for medical, disaster, and search-and-rescue emergencies, directly impacting outcomes and endangering lives. Traditional emergency services remain essential, but they are insufficient in covering all rural needs quickly. Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), or drones, present a transformative opportunity to bypass geographic and infrastructure barriers. Drones can rapidly deliver critical supplies, e.g. medical kits, blood units, communication devices, food, water, or specialized equipment, within minutes rather than hours. However, to make such a system viable, Utah requires a data-driven framework to determine where drone bases should be located, what fleet capabilities are needed, and how to integrate these operations with regulatory and local constraints. This project addresses the need to design an optimized drone network for comprehensive emergency response in rural Utah. The primary objective of this research project is to develop an optimized drone network design to significantly reduce emergency response times in rural Utah by identifying strategic drone base locations, fleet requirements, and deployment strategies. Secondary objectives of this research project are to evaluate the technological, regulatory, and operational feasibility of drone-based emergency response, ensuring alignment with community needs and positioning Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) as a leader in innovative public safety solutions.

• Record URL:
  • https://www.ctips.org/projects/details.php?id=657

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $116,000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348308

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Center for Transformative Infrastructure Preservation and Sustainability

  North Dakota State University
  Fargo, North Dakota  United States  58108-6050
• Project Managers:

  Tolliver, Denver

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Utah

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  110 Central Campus Drive Suite 2000
  Salt Lake City, UT  United States  84112
• Principal Investigators:

  Liu, Xiaoyue "Cathy"

  Liu, Chenxi

• Start Date: 20251213
• Expected Completion Date: 20271212
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program
• Source Data: CTIPS-060

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Disasters and emergency operations; Drones; Emergency response time; Location; Network analysis; Rural areas
• Geographic Terms: Utah
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Planning and Forecasting; Security and Emergencies; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01976556
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Center for Transformative Infrastructure Preservation and Sustainability
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348308
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Jan 19 2026 4:43PM