TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Tainan on Friday became Taiwan’s first city to integrate drones and AI into its disaster response system, highlighting technology’s expanding role in emergency preparedness.

The city held a drone disaster response demonstration at Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, per UDN. The event showcased collaboration with the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology and the Taiwan Drone Association.

The demonstration integrated drones, mobile command vehicles, and communication systems. Hydrogen power and mobile energy storage systems were also deployed to keep operations running.

Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), accompanied by Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), said combining people and technology makes cities more resilient. She praised the city for mobilizing government, industry, and academia to tackle complex disaster risks.

Hsiao said climate change has made disasters more frequent and harder to manage, citing recent typhoons and flooding as warnings. She said tools such as emergency communications and drone logistics enable faster responses.

Huang said drones are already used in typhoon damage surveys and dengue prevention, sharply reducing manpower needs. He said combining drones with AI and robotics has strengthened disaster response and urban governance.

AI-assisted aerial imaging is speeding up assessments of roof and crop damage after disasters, he added.

The city said the exercise marked two national firsts: embedding drone-based disaster response into a city, and using AI to build 3D disaster models that flag high-risk zones.