They are safer to use and use far less fuel when carrying out Civil Surveillance of emergencies.

No different than satellites, some of these drones are used to determine 'the state of Earth' using far less fuel than regular helicopters. They can provide accurate data to engineers building projects to protect human life as well. Their video ability can construct maps and allow information to where emergency services can find people stranded.

• June 12, 2013, 1:33 PM

...Geodis of the Czech Republic (click here) and Skyeye in Slovakia are companies that have used pilotless aerial technology to document the extent of regional flooding from a bird’s-eye-view for mass-market media.

Czech publicly-funded broadcaster Ceska Televize contracted Geodis to provide footage for its round-the-clock news coverage of floods that forced the evacuation of more than 20,000 people, while in Slovakia daily newspaper SME hired Skyeye to send its helicopters above the Danube.

In Hungary a pilotless plane has been used  to monitor floods.

The drones being used in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are closer to a children’s remote controlled helicopter than to the high-tech U.S. pilotless planes that fly over Pakistan to monitor suspected terrorist groups or to attack targets.

These small devices are cheaper to rent than helicopters or planes. A further advantage over planes is their ability to hover above a single location to provide sweeping, 360 degree images, their operators say....