We develop a set of machine learning based tools for accurate prediction of socio-economic indicators from daytime satellite imagery. The diverse set of indicators are often not intuitively related to observable features in satellite images, and are not even always well correlated with each other. Our predictive tool is more accurate than using night light as a proxy, and can be used to predict missing data, smooth out noise in surveys, monitor development progress of a region, and flag potential anomalies.
- Deploying satellites and artificial intelligence to measure health and material-living standards in India. Makkunda Sharma, Sourabh Bikash Paul, Adel Daoud, Fredrik Johansson, Felipe Jordan, Devdatt Dubhashi, Subhashis Banerjee. 2020 (working paper)
- On monitoring development indicators using high resolution satellite images. Potnuru Kishen Suraj, Ankesh Gupta, Makkunda Sharma, Sourabh Bikas Paul, Subhashis Banerjee, December 2017. (https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.02282)