Aerial Imaging Market Valued at US$4bn by 2024

A new report by Global Market Insights has projected the market for aerial imaging services to be worth US$4 billion by 2024, with UAVs primarily driving the anticipated growth.

The report characterises the uptake of UAVs for aerial photographic capture as ‘exponential’ over the past decade, with the majority of use over this period driven by the real estate sector in urban areas. Photography of construction sites in these environments is served by these platforms far more effectively than traditional flight platforms due to key cost and maneuverability benefits.

Startlingly, the report also notes the sharp increase in the incidence of natural disasters over the past 40 years as another driver in the market expansion of aerial imagery, utilised for swift assessment of affected regions and helping to deliver relief and recover efforts efficiently and quickly.

The report quotes data from the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) that found the frequency of natural disasters has increased nearly three-fold from over 1,300 events between 1975–1984 to over 3,900 between 2005-2014.

Vertical imaging was found to be the major market segment in 2017, largely driven by geospatial mapping applications, which dominated the aerial market last year.

Oblique imaging services are predicted to grow until 2024 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15%, with the report attributing this to better determination of feature elevations and ground coverage relative to vertical imaging captured at the same altitude and with the same focal length.

Urban planning is singled out as the market segment with the fastest growth forecast over the period at 17%, followed by the military and defence sector at 15%. North America is predicted to dominate demand with an anticipated 42% of market share for aerial imagery until 2024.