C-DRONE GUIDE · 18 AUGUST 2026
ZICAD: France's Prohibited Aerial Data Capture Zones, and What They Mean for a Drone Mission
A corporate photographer shooting an industrial site, a surveyor mapping an orthophoto of a business park, a remote pilot tracking a construction site near a barracks or a prison: all of them can be flying entirely legally — and recording illegally. Since 1 January 2023, France has drawn a sharp line between the right to fly and the right to capture data from the air: a ZICAD (a zone banned from aerial data capture) can prohibit any photo, any recording, any sensor pass over a perimeter where the flight itself remains perfectly authorized. Here is what that regime actually changes for a professional drone mission, how to check for it before pricing a quote, and what it costs to ignore it.
Published on 18 August 2026, reviewed on 18 August 2026 — regulations in force as of August 2026.
A ban separate from the flight itself: capturing is not flying
Every professional remote pilot's reflex is to check whether they are allowed to fly at a given spot: maximum height, flight category, populated or unpopulated area. The ZICAD introduces a separate question, unique to France since decree n° 2022-1397 of 2 November 2022 and the order of 2 January 2023 that set its first list, applicable since 1 January 2023: whether one is allowed to capture data at that spot. Article L. 6224-1 of the Transport Code bans, within the zones it defines, the capture, recording, transmission, storage, use or dissemination of data collected from an aircraft by a photographic or film device, or by any other remote-sensing sensor — covering everything from a single photo to a full photogrammetric pass or a LiDAR scan.
The practical consequence is counter-intuitive: a flight can be entirely legal under open- or specific-category rules — height respected, outside any no-fly zone, declaration filed if needed — and still illegal the moment the onboard sensor records usable data over a ZICAD. For a photogrammetry or orthophoto mission, whose whole point is to capture continuously along a flight path, this distinction directly reshapes mission planning: it is no longer enough to check where one may fly — one must also check where one may record.
Which sites can be designated a ZICAD
The ZICAD replaced, at the end of 2022, the former regime of zones banned from aerial photography (ZIPVA), whose precise list stayed classified "Défense" until 2017. The underlying logic is similar: zones are defined with regard to the needs of public order, national defence and security, or the prison service. In practice, the list — set by ministerial order and updated at regular intervals — covers military installations, correctional facilities and other sites the State considers sensitive, without the site-by-site reasoning ever being made public.
The site also publishes dedicated guides on three categories of genuine no-fly zones: nuclear power plants, military zones and bases, and correctional facilities, which fall under the classic flight-ban regime (Transport Code, articles L6211-4 and L6232-4). The ZICAD is a separate thing: it can apply to perimeters that do not necessarily appear on those no-fly-zone lists, and conversely a no-fly zone is not automatically a ZICAD — the two regimes often overlap without being the same.
Checking before pricing a mission
A ZICAD's regulatory listing contains nothing but geographic coordinates: in practice, checking means consulting a map. Géoportail publishes a dedicated layer — under "Cartes", the thematic-data menu, Territoires et transport, then Descriptif du territoire, by switching on the "Zones interdites à la captation aérienne de données (ZICAD)" layer — and data.gouv.fr offers the same dataset for download. That layer is separate from the UAS restricted-zone layer covered in our guide on reading the Géoportail map: a professional needs to check both before pricing a mission near a sensitive site — the first to know where flying is allowed, the second to know where recording is.
The reflex to build in is the same as for an airport CTR: check at the first contact with the client, not the day before the flight. An industrial site, a housing estate or a business park bordering a barracks, a depot or a correctional facility can sit, wholly or partly, under a ZICAD without the client commissioning the work having any idea — it is the provider's job to check before proposing a flight plan that would cover the zone in question.
Exemption or adapted mission: the two options
Two options come up when a ZICAD overlaps the site to document. The first, simplest when it's enough: adapt the flight plan and the framing to exclude the protected zone from any shot, any photogrammetric pass, any sensor scan — a solution that costs nothing but requires knowing the exact perimeter before take-off, not discovering it in the data-processing room afterwards. The second: request an exemption, when the mission genuinely cannot do without covering the zone. That exemption is issued by the department's préfet, except for ZICAD that remain under the Ministry of the Armed Forces, the only body competent over its own perimeter. The request is filed online through the Démarches simplifiées service, and is best planned well ahead — processing a ZICAD exemption takes noticeably longer than a simple flight declaration in a populated area, and that lead time needs to go into the quote from the first contact, on the same principle as for an airport CTR clearance.
Unlike the free, fast préfecture declaration for a flight in a populated area, a ZICAD exemption is a standalone process specific to this regime, which replaces no other authorization — flight category, aeronautical clearance, AlphaTango registration — and exempts an operator from none of them.
Penalties: a separate regime from a simple no-fly violation
The ZICAD penalty regime belongs specifically to Article L. 6224-1 of the Transport Code, distinct from the one that punishes simply flying over a no-fly zone. Unauthorized capture through negligence carries up to 6 months in prison and a €15,000 fine; intentional capture, up to one year in prison and a €45,000 fine. These penalties apply to the capture itself — photo, video, point cloud, orthophoto — regardless of whether the flight rules were otherwise respected: a pilot fully compliant on the aeronautical side remains exposed if they record a ZICAD without an exemption. As detailed in our guide to drone penalties and inspections in France, a ground check or a later review of data delivered to a client can be enough to establish the offence, long after the flight.
The threat this regime aims to prevent is far from theoretical: a 2015 conceptual analysis published in the International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace by Wallace and Loffi, reviewing 68 studies, government reports and news articles, shows that a civilian drone's ability to observe and document a site remotely turns it into a reconnaissance tool that can be exploited for malicious purposes — which justifies a protection regime aimed at the captured data itself, not merely at controlling the airspace (see the study on Google Scholar).
Frequently asked questions about ZICAD
Does a flight authorization cover capturing data in a ZICAD? No: the two authorizations are independent. A specific-category flight clearance or a populated-area declaration never exempts an operator from a ZICAD exemption if the flight plan captures the protected zone.
How do I know whether a client's site is affected? By checking Géoportail's ZICAD layer or the data.gouv.fr dataset at the first contact, before proposing a flight plan — the same reflex as for any restricted zone.
What should be done if data was captured by mistake? Don't use or distribute it, inform the client immediately, and get in touch with the relevant préfecture — good faith doesn't waive the penalty, but a quick regularization always beats a silence uncovered later during a check.
Does the regime apply to drones under 250 g? Yes: as with a CTR or a no-fly zone, the restriction concerns the captured data and the location, never the aircraft's weight.