Estimating Displaced Populations from Overhead

Code

• github.com/JHUAPL/EstimatingDisplacedPopulations
  OfficialIn papernone★ 1

Abstract

We introduce a deep learning approach to perform fine-grained population estimation for displacement camps using high-resolution overhead imagery. We train and evaluate our approach on drone imagery cross-referenced with population data for refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh in 2018 and 2019. Our proposed approach achieves 7.02% mean absolute percent error on sequestered camp imagery. We believe our experiments with real-world displacement camp data constitute an important step towards the development of tools that enable the humanitarian community to effectively and rapidly respond to the global displacement crisis.

Tasks

Reproductions