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Source</a></span> <h1 class="entry-title"><div>How open source AI can improve population estimates, sustainable energy, and the delivery of climate change interventions</div></h1> </div> </header> <figure id="post-feat-image-container"> <img width="1118" height="864" src="https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-1-1.png" class="wp-post-image" alt="" /> </figure> <div class="entry-authors-social"> <div class="entry-authors"> By <a href="https://engineering.fb.com/author/james-gill/" title="Posts by James Gill" class="author url fn" rel="author">James Gill</a>, <a href="https://engineering.fb.com/author/alex-pompe/" title="Posts by Alex Pompe" class="author url fn" rel="author">Alex Pompe</a> </div> <div class="entry-social"> <div class="entry-facebook"> <button onclick="return fbShare()" aria-label="Share this post on Facebook"> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M9 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class="entry-hacker-news"> <button onclick="return shareHackerNews('https://engineering.fb.com/2024/10/03/ml-applications/open-source-ai-population-maps-meta/')" aria-label="Share this post on Hacker News"> <svg width="24" height="24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M13.693 14.659L21.507 0h-3.29l-4.612 9.165c-.47.94-.901 1.841-1.293 2.703l-1.234-2.703L6.525 0H3l7.726 14.482V24h2.967v-9.341z" fill-rule="nonzero"/></svg> </button> </div> </div> </div> <div class="entry-content"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Data for Good at Meta is open-sourcing the data used to train our AI-powered population maps.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">We’re hoping that researchers and other organizations around the world will be able to leverage these tools to assist with a wide range of projects including those on climate adaptation, public health and disaster response.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The dataset and code are available now on </span><a href="https://github.com/facebookresearch/HighResolutionSettlementLayer" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">GitHub</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To support the ongoing work of researchers, governments, nonprofits, and humanitarians around the world, the Data for Good at Meta program is open-sourcing the first set of training data and sample code used to construct </span><a href="https://dataforgood.facebook.com/dfg/tools/high-resolution-population-density-maps" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Meta’s AI-powered population maps.</span></a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As the world looks towards the increasing threat of climate change, Meta’s AI-powered population maps, and the data behind them, offer significant opportunities to direct investments in disaster preparedness through improved estimation of</span> <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09282-y" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">global flood exposure</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and in</span> <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-sustainability/article/upscaling-urban-data-science-for-global-climate-solutions/D2D622B43CD50A9B2FD5DF855BCC0F18?fbclid=IwY2xjawEnQjVleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHbTiWUPUhcbX0JBxfPLVwtg9fd6wyYO98jy1N0MatP_Fse1Sv7078P2pYg_aem_Y5QcbSZqolPCKpdKynnlfQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">climate adaptation planning</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">By open sourcing these tools, we hope that other researchers can generate new insights for speeding the delivery of sustainable energy and climate resilient infrastructure around the world.</span></p> <h2>Why we need better population maps</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Accurate estimates of population are taken for granted in many countries. Governments in advanced economies can rely on a variety of sources including tax records or census datasets to better estimate their population and make informed decisions on the delivery of services. However, in other parts of the world, accurate population data is hard to come by. In certain low- and middle-income countries, the most recent census may have been conducted decades ago or lack accurate representation of vulnerable populations. Furthermore, estimates between censuses are often fraught with inaccuracies and remote populations may be entirely missing from official sources. As a result, uncounted communities may live outside the reach of critical programs. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To combat this challenge, Meta began </span><a href="https://ai.meta.com/research/publications/mapping-the-world-population-one-building-at-a-time/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the process of mapping the world’s population using artificial intelligence and satellite imagery</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in 2017. Alongside other leading population mapping institutions like </span><a href="https://people.climate.columbia.edu/units/view/5" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Columbia University’s Center for Earth Science Information Network</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (CIESIN) and </span><a href="https://www.worldpop.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">WorldPop at the University of Southampton</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, we have </span><a href="https://data.humdata.org/organization/meta" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">openly published hundreds of high resolution population maps and datasets</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. These have been used around the world by governments and nonprofits for social programs ranging from the </span><a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a155c5ae-cd99-5635-a9de-4b86905f402f/content" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">targeting of COVID-19 interventions</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to the delivery of clean water. As the world’s natural resource and energy demands scale, accurate population estimates also offer significant opportunities to improve sustainability efforts.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_21795" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21795" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-21795" src="https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-1.png?w=1024" alt="" width="1024" height="791" srcset="https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-1.png 1118w, https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-1.png?resize=916,708 916w, https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-1.png?resize=768,594 768w, https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-1.png?resize=1024,791 1024w, https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-1.png?resize=96,74 96w, https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-1.png?resize=192,148 192w" sizes="(max-width: 992px) 100vw, 62vw" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-21795" class="wp-caption-text">The World Bank leveraged Meta’s AI-powered population maps to identify potential COVID-19 hotspots in Kinshasa, DRC.</figcaption></figure> <h2>Background on Meta’s AI-powered population maps</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Data for Good’s AI-powered population maps estimate the number of people living within 30-meter grid tiles in nearly every country around the world. These maps leverage computer vision techniques – similar to those leveraged to </span><a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/01/using-ai-to-improve-photo-descriptions-for-blind-and-visually-impaired-people/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">identify objects in photos for the visually impaired</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> – to identify human-made structures in satellite imagery. The outputs of Meta’s AI model are then combined with population stock estimates from </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">CIESIN</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to approximate the number of people living in each tile. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In addition to total population counts, Meta’s population maps also include demographic breakdowns for groups such as the number of children under five, women of reproductive age, youth, and the elderly. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">AI-powered population estimates </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">have been scientifically evaluated to be among the most accurate in the world for mapping population distribution for a variety of geographies and use-cases. For example, </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-07720-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">this 2022 paper by researchers at the University of Southampton and University of Ghana in </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nature – Scientific Reports</span></i> </a><span style="font-weight: 400;">compares various population density estimates for use in mapping flooding risk in west Africa. Other studies have investigated a variety of use-cases such as mapping </span><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11069-023-06283-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">landslide risk</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.18.160101v1.full" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">malaria eradication</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">; and a range of countries including </span><a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5729/3/3/33" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Haiti, Malawi, Madagascar, Nepal, Rwanda, and Thailand</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p> <h2>Open-sourcing training data for our AI population maps</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This initial set of training data consists of almost 10 million labels for over 126 gigabytes of satellite imagery and includes human labels on these satellite imagery patches indicating if a building is present. </span><a href="https://resources.maxar.com/data-sheets/imagery-basemaps-data-sheet" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">These labels were created on satellite imagery dating from 2011 – 2020</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">;</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> however, even labels made on older imagery are useful to train the next generation of machine vision models (like </span><a href="https://ai.meta.com/sam2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Meta’s Segment Anything</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">) to more accurately identify buildings in a range of land-cover environments. In addition to this first batch, we plan to release additional data and code for computer vision training in the future.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Open sourcing Meta’s training data and code allows population mapping partners like CIESIN and WorldPop to continue the progress made in the last decade. These tools reduce development costs for research units to generate even more accurate population estimates and also allows researchers working on building detection to improve their methods, especially when combined with more recent satellite imagery. Future data released from CIESIN and data collaborations like GRID3 will continue to push boundaries of spatial resolution and accuracy as the result of their work collaborating with many African countries to generate, validate, and use core spatial datasets in support of sustainable development. </span></p> <blockquote class="blockquote"><p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">To better visualize village settlement locations and calculate service coverage, World Vision turned to an innovative dataset developed by Meta’s Data for Good (D4G) and Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). The resulting High Resolution Settlement Layer (HRSL) has been a game-changer for visualizing the geography of clean water.<br /> </span></i><span style="color: #636c72; font-size: 12.8px;"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">–A</span></i>llen Hollenbach, Technical Director for World Vision Water and Sanitation</span></p></blockquote> <h2>Applications in sustainable electrification, clean water, and climate change adaptation</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nonprofit organizations and governments around the world have already leveraged Meta’s AI-powered population maps for a range of social impact programs, including </span><a href="https://dataforgood.facebook.com/dfg/resources/world-bank-global-electrification-platform-case-study" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the World Bank’s</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> rural electrification efforts in Somalia and Benin and similar efforts in Uganda by the </span><a href="https://www.wri.org/update/using-metas-relative-wealth-index-and-high-resolution-population-density-data-help-expand" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">World Resources Institute</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p> <p><a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/a73563c0d11b433fa35e0bd10a546087" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">World Vision</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> has also used these datasets in accelerating the progress in five-year plans for water and sanitation in places like Rwanda and Zambia and just recently announced </span><a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/50e5063b79374c3d924d662ba6f2e863" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">having reached one million additional Rwandans with clean water</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> using insights from these maps to track progress towards universal water coverage.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_21796" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21796" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-21796" src="https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-2.png?w=1024" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-2.png 1999w, https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-2.png?resize=916,611 916w, https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-2.png?resize=768,512 768w, https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-2.png?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-2.png?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-2.png?resize=96,64 96w, https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Meta-open-source-population-maps-2.png?resize=192,128 192w" sizes="(max-width: 992px) 100vw, 62vw" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-21796" class="wp-caption-text">World Vision used Meta’s high resolution population maps to identify the population and associated settlements closest to existing water points and target areas where new water points were needed.</figcaption></figure> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Innovation in global population mapping is only possible through the type of collaboration Meta continues to have with Columbia University and WorldPop and a shared commitment to open source enables researchers and governments around the world to participate in this process.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Please visit the <a href="https://dataforgood.facebook.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Data for Good</a> website for more information about Meta’s Data for Good program. A</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">nd please visit this blog for more <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/06/privacy-matters-data-for-good/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">information about how we protect user privacy in our tools.</a></span></p> <h2>Acknowledgements</h2> <p><em>We’d like to thank our external collaborators: Professor Andy Tatem, Director of WorldPop at University of Southampton, UK; and Greg Yetman, Associate Director for Geospatial Applications at CIESIN, Columbia University, and for their partnership and support on this work.</em></p> <div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-facebook"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="sharing-facebook-21793" class="share-facebook sd-button share-icon" href="https://engineering.fb.com/2024/10/03/ml-applications/open-source-ai-population-maps-meta/?share=facebook" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Facebook" ><span>Facebook</span></a></li><li class="share-custom share-custom-threads"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-custom share-custom-threads sd-button share-icon" href="https://engineering.fb.com/2024/10/03/ml-applications/open-source-ai-population-maps-meta/?share=custom-1706294701" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Threads" ><span style="background-image:url("https://engineering.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/threads-app-icon.png");">Threads</span></a></li><li class="share-x"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="sharing-x-21793" class="share-x sd-button share-icon" href="https://engineering.fb.com/2024/10/03/ml-applications/open-source-ai-population-maps-meta/?share=x" target="_blank" title="Click to share on X" ><span>X</span></a></li><li class="share-linkedin"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="sharing-linkedin-21793" class="share-linkedin sd-button share-icon" href="https://engineering.fb.com/2024/10/03/ml-applications/open-source-ai-population-maps-meta/?share=linkedin" target="_blank" title="Click to share on LinkedIn" ><span>LinkedIn</span></a></li><li class="share-custom share-custom-hackernews"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-custom share-custom-hackernews sd-button share-icon" href="https://engineering.fb.com/2024/10/03/ml-applications/open-source-ai-population-maps-meta/?share=custom-1699562127" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Hacker News" ><span style="background-image:url("https://news.ycombinator.com/y18.svg");">Hacker News</span></a></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button share-icon" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20How%20open%20source%20AI%20can%20improve%20population%20estimates%2C%20sustainable%20energy%2C%20and%20the%20delivery%20of%20climate%20change%20interventions&body=https%3A%2F%2Fengineering.fb.com%2F2024%2F10%2F03%2Fml-applications%2Fopen-source-ai-population-maps-meta%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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