With ED Decision 2025/018/R, the European Aviation Safety Agency has published an updated version of Guidance Material and Acceptable Means of Compliance for Implementing Regulation 2019/947. This stipulates that version 2.5 of the Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA), developed by the Working Group Safety Risk Management (WG SRM) at the Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems (JARUS), can now be applied in the EU.
SORA 2.5 aims to achieve noticeable simplifications and harmonizations in the application and approval process for UAS operations in the “Specific Category” through more precise wording and clarifications. While the assessment of air risk is reserved for a further SORA update – version 3.0 is already in preparation – important changes in version 2.5 relate to the assessment system for ground risk based on numerical population density. The impact of airspace adjacent to the operating area on the required risk mitigation measures has also been adjusted so that, in many cases, a lower containment level is required without compromising flight safety.
Further information on ED Decision 2025/018/R is available here:
https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/document-library/agency-decisions/ed-decision-2025018r?utm_campaign=i-20250929&utm_term=pro&mtm_source=notifications&mtm_medium=email&utm_content=title&mtm_placement=content&mtm_group=easa_agency_decision
In addition, EASA is working with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the EU's Copernicus Earth observation program to develop an interactive map for determining population density in individual member states. This is intended to facilitate the use of numerical population density data for ground risk assessment as provided for in SORA 2.5. The map is currently under development and cannot yet be used as a reference for operating license applications. However, the tool should be a valuable aid for commercial UAS operations in the future.