Standardizing UAS Economic Assessments in Forestry: A Framework for Comparable Cost Effectiveness Analysis

Despite the rapid integration of Unmanned Aerial Systems in forest management, a significant knowledge 
gap persists regarding their true economic viability. Recent reviews indicate that only 8% of UAS-related 
forestry literature includes rigorous cost-effectiveness assessments, with existing studies often suffering 
from inconsistent methodologies that preclude direct comparison. This paper addresses this gap by 
proposing a standardized economic framework rooted in engineering economics, specifically utilizing the 
Annualized Cost Method and Capital Recovery factors to account for the time value of money and rapid 
technological obsolescence. The framework disaggregates expenditures into planning, equipment, labor, 
and travel phases, normalizing outputs to a cost per hectare metric. To validate the protocol, the framework 
was applied to nine diverse UAS projects managed by the University of Montana’s Autonomous Aerial 
Systems Office (AASO), ranging from localized multispectral surveys to large-scale LiDAR corridor 
mapping. Results identify four primary drivers of cost-efficiency: equipment capital expenditure, spatial 
scale, operational complexity, and annual utilization rates. The findings demonstrate a significant "scale 
effect," where unit costs drop precipitously as survey areas increase, and a "utilization effect," where 
frequent deployment is critical to amortizing high sensor premiums. By providing a "common language" 
for economic assessment, this framework enables forest managers to move beyond anecdotal evidence 
toward data-driven UAS investments, ensuring that drone adoption is as economically sound as it is 
technically transformative.