Urban low-altitude vertiport siting in three-dimensional space with coverage and connectivity considerations

[Background] Scientific siting and rational layout of low-altitude vertiports are fundamental to urban low-altitude flight operations and play a crucial role in the development of low-altitude economies. However, current practices are often constrained by a lack of facilities and systematic planning. [Objective] This study develops a three-dimensional siting model for urban low-altitude vertiports that minimizes construction costs while jointly accounting for demand coverage and vertiport connectivity. [Method] The model extends traditional two-dimensional siting approaches by incorporating three-dimensional spatial constraints (relationship between building height, vertiport elevation, and fixed cruising altitude), battery energy consumption, and low-altitude wind conditions. These factors are integrated to quantify the impact of flight distance on location decisions. By iteratively selecting vertiports through a tradeoff between coverage and connectivity efficiency, a minimum spanning tree is employed to ensure global connectivity. Redundant nodes are pruned to achieve cost optimality, ultimately yielding an optimal solution set that satisfies both coverage and connectivity constraints. [Data] Using geographic information system technology, real geographical data of over 600000 buildings in Shenzhen, China, were acquired, integrating multidimensional information such as building coordinates, height, elevation, and land use type. [Result] Numerical experiments indicate that the proposed model requires only 14 low-altitude vertiports to cover 95% of the demand points in Shenzhen, while maintaining a fully connected vertiport network. [Application] This study provides an adaptive framework for siting low-altitude vertiports, and theoretical and technical support for designing vertiport networks in complex urban environments.