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According to the ancient historian Herodotus, it was from the top of Mount Egaleo (aka Aigaleo) that the Persian king Xerxes witnessed his fleet destroyed during the Battle of Salamis in an event that helped shape the future of Europe for centuries to come.
If, from his perch on this mountain on the western edge of Athens, Xerxes was afforded a view of the same landscape 2,500 years hence, he may have seen another event—one that promises to shape not the land borders of city-states, but the airspace that today connects us all.
In May 2024, the Municipality of Egaleo successfully hosted live psychoacoustic experiments related to the potential impact of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) technologies as part of the ImAFUSA project. In doing so, it became the first municipality in the country to host such experiments.
Held at strategic locations within the city—such as the municipal park Baroutadiko—these experiments included sound-walks and a social acceptance survey that sought to assess participants’ perceptions of the impact of drones on their everyday life. These experiments were co-organised by four ImAFUSA project partners: The Acoustics Research Centre at the University of Salford (USAL), Delft University Faculty of Aerospace Engineering (TUDelft), Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE) and Future Needs (FN).
Among the local community, the response was overwhelmingly positive, with over 130 citizens participating in the soundwalks and social acceptance surveys.
Using the data collected from these experiments researchers will establish a framework for measuring the impact of urban air mobility. This framework will support the authorities to establish capacity thresholds for the cities' airspace and u-space. Cities will have a method to measure UAM’s current and future environmental, socioeconomic, and safety impacts.
In the modern era, the Municipality of Egaleo has faced many of the challenges common in southeast Europe, including housing multiple waves of refugees in the first half of the 20th century, challenges arising from subsequent rapid urbanisation and the rise (and later fall) of heavy industries, among others.
The Municipality of Egaleo has been collaborating tightly with Future Needs to ensure the participation of the city in further EU projects besides ImAFUSA (eg the Erasmus+ UAMSchool4cities project) to continue implementing their roadmap towards implementing innovative policy practices in the city. City involvement in such EU projects offers numerous strategic and practical benefits for the municipality. In brief, these include:
Contribution to City’s Sustainability Goals: The projects promote sustainable urban mobility solutions, such as drones and aerial technologies, which align with broader environmental and sustainability goals (e.g., reducing emissions and urban congestion)
Innovation and Funding: Participation in European-funded projects allows the municipality to gain access to cutting-edge technologies, research insights, and financial support for urban development initiatives.
Improved Urban Planning: By contributing to research on UAM, the municipality can prepare for future infrastructure needs, ensuring the better integration of new technologies in the city.
Citizen Engagement and Policy Shaping: Such projects enable the municipality to involve residents in pilot programs, gathering feedback on noise, safety, and visual impacts to shape socially acceptable policies and practices.
Economic and Social Development: Participation can stimulate local economies, improve accessibility, and boost the city’s reputation as a hub for innovation and progress.
Research and Capacity Building: The municipality gains access to tools and methodologies that will help us measure and improve the environmental, economic, and societal impacts of urban air mobility technologies.
Through their participation in ImAFUSA, the local authorities aspire to contribute to the future urban air mobility for Europe and beyond, while ensuring the Municipality of Egaleo is well-positioned to make the most of the opportunities these exciting technologies offer while improving residents’ overall quality of life.
You can learn more about the experiment that took place in Egaleo in our video ImAFUSA Open Day in Athens and in the blog posts Drone Experiments in Athens and TU Delft measures drone noise & local air quality in Egaleo, Athens.
Authored by Irini Karakasidou, Researcher in Psychology, in Municipality of Egaleo and Pavlos Zafiropoulos, Dissemination Manager in Future Needs Management Consulting & Dissemination Leader in the ImAFUSA project.