## 5 Conclusions  
The present work is based on an actual event--the \"EXE.Lomb.Est 2023\" earthquake response exercise conducted during the Civil Protection Week in the Lombardy Region of Italy in October 2023--and contributed to the bridging of primary research data and practical evidence. This type of study, grounded in real scenarios, features the added value of validating theoretical models and assessing the effectiveness of technological applications in optimizing emergency response systems. In that, the described exercise was an important opportunity to pool collaboration between research bodies and institutions and made it possible to implement and test a UAS service chain that (1) starts from the activation mechanisms; (2) through the application of operational technical solutions, is able to satisfy the needs of stakeholders in times compatible with an emergency situation; and (3) is fully integrated within the overall emergency response system. The conduct of the exercise has been analyzed for the two macro-areas of experimentation (activation management and emergency aerophotogrammetry) in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Within the perspective of the former aspect, the experimentation of the coordination system basically worked and proved to be useful and effective in response, even if some critical issues or some aspects for improvement were identified, mainly concerning the communication flows and formats. Noteworthy is the involvement of the national aviation authorities (ENAC/ENAV/D-flight), which has opened an essential dialogue to be kept active and operational in the near future. Regarding the conduct of joint technical activities, a great synergy developed among the involved teams from different institutions in elaborating shared procedures, common language and brainstorming on needs and solutions. Some critical issues and some aspects deserving further attention and experimentation were also highlighted, mainly concerning the safety with respect to interference with manned flights without transponders and the final delivery of products to the stakeholders. In this regard, it is noteworthy that an added-value service chain is really such only if properly concluded, which means making the produced output \"ready to use\" and operational. Given the nature of the described technical products, their usability is directly proportional to the technical level of the end users, to the adequate information on the type and quality of the contents made available, highlighting their limits, assumptions and conditions, as well as the availability of sufficiently high-performance technologies for an adequate visualization. As an example, a cloud-service platform designed according to end users' requirements with specific access permissions would ease this last step of the chain. This can be obtained only through a sort of trial-and-error interactive process with pilot stakeholders since the platform needs to be customized based on an evolving given portfolio of outputs, properly considering also aspects of data protection, bandwidth and so on. It can be said that the system, as a whole and in its various aspects, certainly worked and was an excellent opportunity to operationally put the various \"forces at play\" into action. Likewise, and as expected, it emerged that the system itself needs to be \"run in\", optimized and further tested. Conceptualization, M.M., C.C., U.M.d.C., A.B., G.R., C.T.S. and A.M.; data curation, M.M., U.M.d.C., A.B., G.R. and C.T.S. ; formal analysis, A.B., G.R. and C.T.S. ; methodology, M.M., C.C., U.M.d.C., A.B., G.R., C.T.S., A.M. and O.L. ; writing--original draft, M.M. and C.C. ; writing--review and editing, M.M., C.C., U.M.d.C., G.R., C.T.S. and A.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.