The right flight path for the low-altitude economy

Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, has begun drawing roads in the sky. Its new "Sky Road Map" — the first of its kind in China — charts hundreds of flight corridors and thousands of landing points across the city, creating a digital blueprint for a future in which drones, air taxis and other low-altitude aircraft become part of everyday urban life.

But the real challenge is not mapping routes; it is governing a crowded sky. As millions of low-altitude aircraft take flight, China will need a dynamic governance system that manages airspace across space and time, coordinates multiple agencies in real time and treats the sky as critical urban infrastructure. Otherwise, the low-altitude economy could add a new layer of disorder to already strained cities.

Drones, electric air taxis and other low-flying aircraft are seen as part of the country's next wave of industrial growth and infrastructure development. However, growth without structure is unsustainable.

To ensure orderly growth, the governance framework should adopt a "risk-based" or "benefit-assessed" approach that prioritizes public safety and disaster relief. The recent flood relief operations in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region illustrate the value of low-altitude aircraft in emergency situations. Rules for commercial logistics, environmental monitoring and other market-oriented applications can be developed in an extended framework. By differentiating governance according to public value and economic needs, cities can safeguard critical functions without stifling innovation.

China's urban development has hit an inflection point. Traditional two-dimensional, labor-intensive governance models are reaching their limits. A shrinking front line workforce and tighter fiscal budgets demand a more precise, resilient approach.

The growth of low-altitude airspace — generally up to 1,000 meters above the ground — is pushing Chinese cities beyond traditional ground-based management.

Urban authorities must now manage not only roads, buildings and people on the ground, but also where aircraft fly, when they fly and how their movements interact with life on the ground. This emerging model is described as "spatiotemporal governance" because it adds both physical elevation and time to the traditional map of urban management. More importantly, it marks a shift from reacting to problems after they occur to anticipating and preventing risks through coordinated data-driven governance.

The future of low-altitude governance will not be built one drone at a time. Current "point-based" models, which treat drone operations as isolated deployments, are not suitable for the scale of modern urban complexity. Therefore, China is moving toward a sophisticated spatiotemporal grid-based model that integrates three foundational pillars to manage the low-altitude space.

The first pillar is digital intelligence. Real-name registration, flight reporting and identification systems help authorities determine who is flying where and for what purpose. When those data are combined with weather information, air-traffic rules and 3D maps of the city, regulators can assess risks in real time rather than after an incident occurs.

The second is zoning. Instead of relying on blanket no-fly bans, cities are beginning to classify low-altitude airspace by aircraft type, mission, population density and infrastructure risk. High-risk areas can be tightly controlled, while designated corridors remain open for lower-risk commercial and public services. Fixed routes and approved takeoff-and-landing nodes will turn low-altitude airspace into a planned transportation network.

The third pillar is coordination. Drones do not stop at city borders, and neither can regulation. Aviation authorities, emergency responders and public security departments need shared platforms and shared rules. When flight routes are connected with weather and safety data, risks can be spotted before takeoff. As drone services expand across neighboring cities, common standards for identity checks, data sharing and approvals will be essential to keep flights moving safely across municipal boundaries.

Across China, early experiments are already showing what a coordinated low-altitude network can achieve. On the technical front, integrating multisource big data is enabling the creation of digital twins that allow officials to visualize and simulate urban life in real time. For instance, in Pingtan, Fujian province, autonomous inspection systems like "Cloud Xiaosheng" are transforming how municipal infrastructure is monitored.

These initiatives signal a broader shift toward anticipatory urban governance. By replacing post-event response with pre-event planning, cities can overcome three persistent challenges: insufficient synergy, fragmented integration, and uneven public service coverage.

The real test of China's urban governance is not whether drones can fill the sky, but whether cities can govern that sky with the same coherence and efficiency that they govern the streets below.

That will require more than advanced aircraft. It will require stronger legal frameworks, deeper institutional coordination and sustained investment in digital infrastructure and innovation.

For decades, China's cities were shaped primarily by horizontal expansion. The next stage will be defined by how effectively they manage activity across space and time, integrating the air above the city with the systems that operate on the ground. If that transition succeeds, the low-altitude economy will become part of a broader shift toward safer, more resilient and more intelligent urban life.

Xu Ying is a research fellow at the Low-Altitude Economy Research Center and an assistant professor at the School of Government, Central University of Finance and Economics; and Zhang Weishi is an associate professor at the Faculty of Geography, Tianjin Normal University.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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