## 5 Conclusions  
While academic research has extensively explored the potential of drones across environmental monitoring, biosecurity, climate change mitigation, and disaster management, its primary focus remains on leveraging drones for ecological conservation, precision agriculture, urban planning, and emergency response. Researchers highlight the ability of drones to enhance data accuracy, reduce operational costs, and improve efficiency in traditionally labour-intensive tasks. However, challenges persist, including regulatory constraints, ethical considerations, technological limitations, and financial barriers. Despite these hurdles, drones have proven particularly effective in biodiversity assessments, disaster response, and infrastructure monitoring, demonstrating their increasing relevance in supporting sustainable and resilient communities. Findings from regional NSW councils indicate that drones are already integrated into various governance functions, spanning environmental management, infrastructure maintenance, public safety, and social initiatives. While many of these uses align with academic research, councils also employ drones for practical, region-specific purposes, such as weed detection, coastal erosion monitoring, and land use planning. Additionally, their role in tourism, heritage documentation, and potential for remote community capacity building, highlight the expanding scope of drone technology beyond purely technical uses. However, the degree of adoption varies based on resource availability, regulatory support, and technological expertise, presenting opportunities for further development and targeted investment. Looking ahead, future research could play a crucial role in overcoming existing barriers by developing cost-effective, scalable drone solutions tailored to regional council needs. Expanding drone uses into underutilised sectors, such as healthcare logistics, waste management, and climate resilience, could further enhance their impact. Strengthening collaboration between researchers and councils would enable knowledge-sharing, the establishment of best-practice guidelines, and improved policy frameworks to facilitate adoption. Such partnerships will be essential in ensuring that drone technology continues to evolve as a smart, adaptable, and accessible tool for regional governance. This review of current research and the use of drone technology in regional areas indicates that drones embodying smart technology are poised to redefine operational efficiency and service delivery in rural and regional councils. This paper highlights the use of drones in rural and regional towns, but also showcases unique, new and targeted uses, and the untapped potential that remains. Our findings provide a starting point for councils to explore new uses that might be suitable to their areas. The map (Figure 3) also givesreaders a visual representation of which councils are utilising drone technology, as well as the present level of engagement with drone technology as a future smart management tool for regional councils. The review of the academic literature and council websites has revealed a significant spread of drone uses and uses already in play, suggesting that the scope of their usage, if adopted at scale, could be transformative in rural settings. From enhancing the efficiency of last-mile deliveries to providing novel solutions for planning and public health, drones stand as a testament to innovation that can cross geographical divides. Findings from this review highlight strategies and examples developed in NSW and from global examples that could be relevant to rural areas worldwide. A limitation in the systematic literature review pertains to the date of publications searched. Our search parameter dates were 2018-2023; the article was completed and submitted in 2025. We acknowledge the possibility of publications missed as a result of procedural review processes and timing.