A new method uses satellite images to detect poverty spots in the world

Weather of Arabia - Despite the development that the world has reached today, it is still difficult to reach accurate estimates of poverty areas in the world, which leads to insufficient distribution of resources and providing them with the assistance they need, although the world has achieved remarkable successes in reducing poverty. Over the past two decades, nearly a billion people still live without access to affordable electricity, negatively affecting their health and well-being, and hampering sustainable development.

A recent study led by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) has proposed a new method for estimating the level of global economic well-being using nighttime satellite imagery.

For about 30 years, scientists have used such satellite images of the night - known as "night radiation" or "night lights" - to study human activity and map issues of economic growth, poverty or inequality, particularly in places where such data is lacking. .

Brightly lit areas refer to more developed areas such as capitals, while unlit areas at night indicate limited development, and this is a good indicator for detecting poverty, making it easier to target those places to alleviate poverty and focus on them to improve services and infrastructure to increase economic well-being and health and raising the level of education.

Using satellite imagery at night, scientists found that 19% of all inhabited places on Earth were unlit, and the majority of unlit populated areas were in Africa (39%) and Asia (23%). If only rural areas are considered, it turns out that 65% of rural areas in Africa are not lit while in Asia the proportion is 40%. These results indicate a strong association between increased percentages of unlit communities and decreased economic well-being.

Surprisingly, there are also relatively large amounts of unlit inhabited places in developed countries, particularly Europe, and there can be several reasons for this result, including the coincidence of the passage of satellite over those areas with a decrease in human activity after midnight, but may It is also due to energy saving methods being pursued by homeowners, governments and industry.

You can view the world at night from space via satellite images from Google Maps from here

Researchers have noted that governments usually prioritize expanding electricity grids to urban areas rather than rural areas, but researchers stress that suburban and rural electricity delivery is critical to increasing economic well-being, health and education, given that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) specifically include Defining “Access to modern, reliable, sustainable and affordable energy for all.” Identifying all areas that lack such access is critical, and this is what this study seeks.

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