At the 5th China International Consumer Products Expo held recently, a low-altitude economic display area was set up for the first time. The picture shows the audience watching an electric vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing carrier drone.

  Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Guo Cheng

  The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to improve and promote the development policies and governance systems of strategic industries such as new generation information technology, artificial intelligence, aerospace, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, biomedicine, and quantum technology, and guide the healthy and orderly development of emerging industries. The low-altitude economy is a representative of new quality productivity, and government supervision is an important part of the low-altitude economic governance system and is the basic guarantee for promoting the long-term high-quality development of the low-altitude economy. The low-altitude economy has the technical and economic characteristics of "small, lightweight, high frequency, high density, and flexible take-off and landing", which determines that it is necessary to build a low-altitude economic supervision system that conforms to the characteristics of low-altitude economic development and conforms to my country's national conditions.

  Establish an effective government supervision system to consolidate the foundation for low-altitude economic development

  The core of the low-altitude economy is to form a new digital, intelligent and green transportation system with a large scale in the airspace below 3,000 meters, including the design and development of low-altitude routes, the research and development of low-altitude aircraft, the construction and management of low-altitude flight infrastructure, the provision of comprehensive low-altitude flight services, and the development of derivative business formats based on low-altitude flight.

  The low-altitude economy is taking off at an accelerated pace, and the regulatory system must be built simultaneously and planned ahead. As a brand new transportation system, expanding from a two-dimensional ground to a three-dimensional sky, all order and interests must be built from the beginning. We must adhere to the bottom line of "flight safety" from the very beginning and establish an effective government supervision system. This is not only a solid foundation for consolidating the high-quality development of the low-altitude economy, but also a prerequisite. We can understand and grasp the urgency of building a low-altitude economic government regulatory system from four aspects.

  First, from the perspective of the relationship between government supervision and high-quality development of low-altitude economy, as a new business model and an economic subsystem with broad development prospects, the low-altitude economy should grasp the dialectical relationship between norms and development. The purpose of government supervision is to achieve high-quality development of low-altitude economy. It is very necessary to effectively establish the industrial development awareness of "developing in norms" in the whole society. Second, from the perspective of the resource basis of low-altitude economic development, low-altitude economic development is based on the development of airspace resources below 3,000 meters. The intensity of airspace opening and management level directly determine the potential of low-altitude economic development. Effectively releasing the potential of low-altitude economic development depends on improving airspace supervision efficiency. Third, from the perspective of the low-altitude economy's "flight safety" operation guarantee, the planning and development of low-altitude routes, flight rules design, flight application approval, low-altitude aircraft research and development, manufacturing and commercial operation with flight safety guarantee, infrastructure construction and comprehensive service provision of low-altitude flight, etc., need to formulate systematic and scientific regulatory policies for the government. Fourth, from the perspective of the risks of low-altitude flight, with the expansion of low-altitude economic scenarios such as low-altitude travel, logistics, cruise, photography, and tourism and the significant increase in market penetration, risks in data security, privacy protection will inevitably be derived, and government departments need to formulate relevant regulatory policies to regulate.

  Important considerations for building a low-altitude government regulatory system

  The construction of a low-altitude economic development regulatory system needs to fully consider its uniqueness, which is mainly reflected in the following aspects.

  Quick responsiveness. The low-altitude economy is based on low-altitude flight. Flight safety is the bottom line requirement. Its low-altitude economy with high-frequency flight characteristics requires the establishment of fast and effective emergency response mechanisms and accident handling procedures to deal with possible flight accidents and safety incidents.

  Technology integration. The low-altitude economy involves the integration of technology in multiple fields such as aircraft, artificial intelligence, communication technology, meteorological technology, power batteries, air navigation, etc. Supervision needs to consider the comprehensive application and mutual influence of technology. At the same time, with the development of new technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence, low-altitude economic supervision needs to continuously adapt to the new challenges and opportunities brought by technological progress.

  Diversity of application scenarios. Low-altitude economy has a wide range of application scenarios, including agricultural plant protection, power inspection, logistics distribution, urban transportation, etc. There are differences in regulatory requirements and standards for different scenarios.

  Complexity of security risks. Low-altitude flight activities involve various safety risk factors, including aviation safety, public safety, privacy protection, environmental safety, etc. Supervision needs to fully consider these risk factors. For example, the digital and intelligent characteristics of low-altitude economy require supervision to pay attention to data security and personal privacy protection. At the same time, low-altitude aircraft may have an impact on the environment, such as noise, light pollution, etc. Supervision needs to consider environmental safety requirements.

  Five major support points for the construction of low-altitude economic government supervision system

  According to the technical and economic characteristics of the low-altitude economy and the specific national conditions of our country, the government supervision system for the high-quality development of the low-altitude economy needs to establish five major support points.

  First, strengthen concept innovation and accelerate the establishment of a standardized incentive-based new supervision system. At present, there are many discussions on low-altitude economic incentive development policies in various sectors of society, while the discussion on government supervision mainly focuses on low-altitude airspace management, lacks a systematic and comprehensive overall understanding and grasp. Supervision is simply understood as "management" and "control". It is urgent to correct deviations, emancipate the mind, and unify the understanding, and create a good cognitive environment for low-altitude economic development. Scientifically grasp the positioning, types and methods of government supervision, coordinate incentive-promotion-oriented supervision and bottom-line normative supervision, explore the establishment of a new regulatory system with norms as the bottom line and incentive-oriented, and is compatible with the laws and characteristics of low-altitude economic development, to avoid simple "one-size-fits-all" and fall into shrinking restrictive supervision, resulting in consequences that hinder the healthy and sustainable development of low-altitude economy.

  Second, strengthen multi-party coordination and further deepen the reform of low-altitude airspace management. At present, the country has opened up airspace below 300 meters except for the no-fly zone, and airspace management reform has taken solid steps, releasing productivity for low-altitude economic development. However, in the foreseeable future, with the expansion of low-altitude economic derivatives, higher altitudes, longer distances and more frequency of low-altitude flights will inevitably grow rapidly, and more demands will be put forward for low-altitude airspace. Therefore, it is urgent to further and efficiently promote the reform of airspace classification and low-altitude airspace management on the basis of deepening reform pilot projects, significantly increase low-altitude flyable airspace, and establish an airspace management mechanism with central-local coordination and departmental coordination in all provinces across the country to realize the "one-stop" approval service for flight plans.

  Third, strengthen digital and intelligent empowerment and explore the establishment of a nationwide unified digital and intelligent low-altitude flight scheduling and supervision platform. With the increase in the penetration rate of low-altitude economy in the fields of travel, logistics, tourism, aerial photography, etc., the frequency of normalized urban aerial flights will remain above 100,000 flights per day in the future. To manage low-altitude flights with such high frequency of flights, it is necessary to establish a low-altitude economic flight scheduling and supervision platform driven by big data, integrating communication systems, monitoring information, counter systems, and scheduling functions, with a highly intelligent level.

  First, the low-altitude airspace is transformed into a calibrated, quantifiable, computable, manageable and usable space to realize real-life three-dimensional information modeling. Secondly, establish a national unified data acquisition standard for low-altitude aircraft, flight trajectory, and other data collection standards as soon as possible, and based on this, establish a national unified flight control platform covering four levels of the country, province, city and county. Thirdly, based on big data mining, intelligent modules are developed to improve the intelligence and accuracy of low-altitude flight application approval and scheduling control, and effectively improve operational management efficiency. At the same time, in terms of construction paths, it is recommended to follow the steps of pilot first and from point to surface, and coordinate the selection of areas with a good digital basic conditions and low-altitude economic development foundation to explore construction paths and construction models first, and gradually cover all parts of the country after the path is explored and the conditions are ripe. At the same time, we encourage and support local governments to actively build a digital scheduling and supervision platform for low-altitude economy, and use flight subject supervision, flight activity monitoring, illegal flight countermeasures, etc. as the core scenarios, and create a "one-stop management" intelligent dispatching platform covering flight plan application and approval, route setting, allocation and correction, illegal aircraft identification, early warning and disposal.

  Fourth, strengthen the support of the leader and accelerate the formulation of airworthiness standards and operation rules systems for low-altitude aircraft. Currently, the vertical take-off and landing vehicle (eVTOL) is highly anticipated by the industry for its suitable use in low-altitude travel. Only after passing the airworthiness certification (including obtaining a model certificate and production license) and applying for the air operator's operation certificate can vertical take-off and landing vehicles enter commercial operation. However, vertical take-off and landing vehicles are still new, and airworthiness standards and operating regulations are almost blank all over the world. It is recommended to give full play to the technical support role of industry leading enterprises such as Yihang Intelligent, establish a low-altitude aircraft industry association and sub-sector branch, and the Civil Aviation Administration of China takes the lead and coordinates the professional strength of the industry association to formulate a unified low-altitude aircraft airworthiness standards and operation rules system to reduce policy uncertainty and stabilize industry development expectations.

  Fifth, strengthen environmental guarantees and strengthen the construction and supervision of the operating environment for low-altitude economy. The low-altitude economy is a brand new economic subsystem, and its high-quality development needs to be based on a high-standard operating environment.

  Specifically, first, we must start the construction of take-off and landing points of low-altitude aircraft as soon as possible. The take-off and landing points of low-altitude aircraft should cover the levels of residents, buildings, communities, streets and districts and counties. Relevant departments shall formulate unified construction and operation standards, and local governments at all levels shall entrust urban investment companies and other business entities to build and manage. The second is to improve relevant laws and regulations for low-altitude economic development. For example, corresponding laws and regulations should be formulated as soon as possible in response to data security and privacy protection issues that may be involved in low-altitude economy. The third is to take the lead and try to gradually build a low-altitude flight service system. The ultra-low altitude (below 600 meters) flights with small and medium-sized drones as the main body will be the main first to try it out, expand from the mature police aviation and large-scale government aviation applications to create a safe and reliable low-altitude service system, and then gradually connect to the civilian low-altitude flight service market. Fourth, increase the mining and development of data such as meteorological and geospatial to support low-altitude flight safety guarantees. Low-altitude flight involves complex environmental factors such as meteorological conditions, topography, and building heights. Data mining and development and utilization in these fields are essential to ensure the safety of low-altitude flight. The coordination of meteorological, land, housing and construction departments should be strengthened, and the relevant data should be collected and standardized, and the flight control platform should be connected. Fifth, strengthen supervision of bulk manufacturing and flight of "travel aircraft". Relevant departments will investigate the overall situation of the upstream and downstream industrial chains of the assembly of "travel-crossing machine", establish relevant assembly access standards and product specifications, and clarify the principles for punishing the consequences of relevant behaviors.

  (The authors of Jin Tong and Du Weijie are: Professor of the "China Government Supervision and Public Policy Research Institute of Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics" in a new key professional think tank; Senior economist of Zhejiang Provincial Economic Information Center. This article is a phased result of the National Social Science Fund Key Project "Research on the Design and Implementation Path of Government Supervision System in Low-altitude Economic Development")

[Editor in charge: Ran Xiaoning]