Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Biosecurity: Enabling Participatory-Design to Help Address Social Licence to Operate Issues

Abstract

Forest health can be adversely affected by invasive organisms. Biosecurity measures to prevent the establishment of harmful invasive organisms at national points of entry (e.g., airports or shipping ports) are vital to protect forest health. Innovations in pest eradication technologies are being developed based on their efficiencies and effectiveness. However, the question of whether people find them acceptable is rarely considered. In New Zealand, research is underway into the use of highly targeted pesticide spraying using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as a novel technology to eradicate pest species that impact forest, food, and fibre sectors. Public approval for such technologies, however, can be a critical aspect for their success. A tool can be technically effective (achieve eradication), but uptake may be impossible if communities do not trust the technology. We developed a method for enabling discussions about the use of UAVs and their acceptability in general before being operationalized for biosecurity. This paper presents an investigation of how “participatory-design”, an often tactile, visual, and inclusive process of community engagement can improve the acceptance of technology use in the public sphere. We asked people, both scientists and citizens, to evaluate the acceptability of a range of UAV uses (including biosecurity) along a continuum and then explored the reasons for their placement. Key criteria for acceptable and unacceptable uses were subsequently developed to help technology designers and operators consider aspects of social acceptability during design processes. Our tool and approach facilitated discussions around technology acceptability that were subsequently adopted by our technical design team for the development and the use of acceptable UAVs for biosecurity. This research shows how systematic approaches to design can help uncover and mitigate social acceptability issues through inclusive design under increasing threats of biosecurity, whether related to challenges of trade or climate change.

Gene drive and RNAi technologies: a bio-cultural review of next-generation tools for pest wasp management in New Zealand

“…SLO began in controversial industries such as mining (Moffat and Zhang 2014), making it a convenient starting point to mirror dialogue on potentially contentious topics like biotechnologies. Ogilvie et al (2019) demonstrate how SLO can facilitate conversation on complex issues like unmanned aerial vehicles in biosecurity by adapting the concept to an activity used in interviews called an 'SLO spectrum'. However, consent and SLO mechanisms must be applied in ways that are consistent with Treaty principles (Ruckstuhl et al 2014) and enhance rangatiratanga (self-determination) .…”

Emerging Stakeholder Relations in Participatory ICT Design: Renegotiating the Boundaries of Sociotechnical Innovation in Forest Biosecurity Surveillance

“…When considering how to design technologies, there are challenges that not only deal with technical problems-such as whether something works effective-but problems of social acceptability [20]. Developing or improving systems can involve a complex set of relationships and require the dismantling of existing systems, or renegotiation of new systems or ways of doing things.…”

“…Further to the dynamics of disruption, "tree health policy [in the UK] is responding rapidly to social change (such as globalisation and trade) and environmental change (such as climate change and alien invasive species), shifting the context and needs for detection technologies" [2] (p.28). New Zealand is similarly exposed to these landscape-level changes, in which biosecurity regimes are also confronting the changing environment of social and cultural acceptability of biosecurity technologies and operations [6,7,20]. This adds pressure to innovate in the space of early detection.…”

Understanding Tree Health under Increasing Climate and Trade Challenges: Social System Considerations

“…Improving surveillance and control systems to make them democratic and fit for purpose requires societal acceptability. Ogilvie et al [14] introduces the concept of social license to operate (SLO) in biosecurity when considering the use of UAVs as a tool for eradicating pest incursions in New Zealand's ports, airports and surrounding residential areas. A SLO involves obtaining informed consent of communities and stakeholders that are likely to be affected and is a process that is ongoing.…”

“…To improve biosecurity in urban areas requires greater engagement with communities that are also typically hard-to-reach. Like Grant et al [13], Ogilvie et al [14] call for greater involvement and codesign of technologies suggesting that familiarity and trust will increase social acceptability. They promote the use of participatory codesign of new technologies-through the use of a visual tool-to incorporate social and cultural considerations and facilitate the inclusion of a broader range of views and expertise to inform technology design and use.…”