Isn’t the World Already Mapped? Mapping 1 Billion People in the World’s Unmapped Places through Machine Learning and Citizen Generated Data
Isn’t the World Already Mapped? Mapping 1 Billion People in the World’s Unmapped Places through Machine Learning and Citizen Generated Data

This post is part of a series highlighting sessions from the 2020 UN Data Forum. Watch every session or read our summary.

Summary: This session provides an overview of how the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap team is working to map 1 billion people in the world’s unmapped places through machine learning and citizen generated data with the help of corporations and individuals on the ground.

Speakers

Key Takeaways

The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap team is working to provide mapping services for the 1 billion individuals living in areas that currently lack access to this geographic data.

How do we use open mapping to make the 1 billion unmapped people visible?

Grow the community to 1 million mappers

Invest in technology

Raise awareness

Facebook has over 1.7 petabytes of satellite images. This data can be divided into 30m x 30m blocks and then through machine learning, identify which blocks have structures in them. This can serve as a proxy for calculating population density for previously unmapped areas.

Check out Map With AI— a mapping tool using machine learning to contribute to global geospatial data.

Currently, over 5,000 students from 255 universities are contributing to global mapping in OpenStreetMap.
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['Cartography', 'World Data Forum', 'Maps', 'Mapping']