The integration of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for infrastructure inspection within digital twin systems promises enhanced resilience and efficiency in European public infrastructure management. However, this convergence creates complex tensions at the intersection of aviation safety regulation, civil liability, public procurement obligations, data protection, and AI governance. This conceptual paper develops a socio-technical governance framework to examine how European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA) constraints interact with downstream contractual liabilities and digital twin data integrity requirements. Drawing on socio-technical systems theory (STS), Systems-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP), regulatory governance theory, infrastructure resilience theory, risk allocation theory, and institutional coordination theory, the analysis identifies a critical gap: the absence of dynamic mechanisms linking real-time aviation safety mitigations to civil engineering liability allocation and digital twin data fidelity. Through doctrinal analysis of key European Union regulatory instruments, comparative jurisdictional observations, and hypothetical governance scenarios, the paper proposes an integrated framework for adaptive risk governance.
Omid Davoodi (Tue,) studied this question.