doi: 10.7763/IJET.2026.V18.1360
The Role of Low-altitude Economy in Sustainable Urban Development
Zonghao Hou
*
- College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP), Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
- Manuscript received July 2, 2026
- accepted July 29, 2026
- published August 26, 2026
Abstract
Rapid urbanization is steadily increasing demand for low-carbon, efficient, and resilient systems in cities. Against this backdrop, the low-altitude economy, represented by uncrewed aircraft and electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, has gradually become an important emerging issue in sustainable urban construction. However, existing studies mostly focus on technological applications, industrial development, or urban air traffic scenarios, and there is still relatively little discussion of how the low-altitude economy systematically contributes to sustainable urban construction. Based on methods of literature review and comparative analysis, this paper explores the role of the low-altitude economy in sustainable urban construction across four dimensions: environment, economy, society, and space. The study concludes that the low-altitude economy can diminish carbon emissions, enhance energy efficiency, and facilitate urban green development via unmanned aerial remote sensing, environmental monitoring, and ecological governance in particular transportation contexts; in the economic dimension, the low-altitude economy helps cultivate low-carbon, intelligent and technology-intensive industrial chains, and simultaneously improves the operational efficiency of urban logistics, inspection and emergency services; in the social and spatial dimensions, the low-altitude economy can enhance urban resilience through risk monitoring, emergency response, postdisaster assessment and other means, and provide new organizational flexibility for limited ground space. The paper argues that the low-altitude economy should not be understood as a comprehensive replacement for traditional ground transportation, nor as a universal large-scale air transportation system for all residents. Instead, it should be defined as a scenario-oriented, function-supplementing type of urban infrastructure. The realization of its sustainable value depends on specific application scenarios, infrastructure layout, airspace management, safety supervision, and coordination with the urban planning system. Therefore, the low-altitude economy offers new technical pathways and spatial governance perspectives for sustainable urban development. However, its development still needs to be advanced within the framework of prudent planning, public interests, and safety governance.
Keywords
- low-altitude economy
- sustainable cities
- urban resilience
- urban air mobility
- spatial governance
How to Cite
Zonghao Hou, "The Role of Low-altitude Economy in Sustainable Urban Development," International Journal of Engineering and Technology, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 141-145, 2026. https://doi.org/ 10.7763/IJET.2026.V18.1360
Copyright & License
Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).