In 2021, the Google Research Africa team launched Open Buildings, an open-source dataset of building footprints across the Global South produced using AI and high-resolution satellite imagery. The team had a simple vision: to fill a major gap in data for population and density in the developing world. Now in its third version, their dataset contains polygons for 1.8 billion buildings over an area of 58 million km² in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. — Google
The data is useful in determining population size and other factors to solve urban density problems.
Google's Research product manager Olivia Graham says: "About 2.5 billion more people could move to cities by 2050, most of them in the Global South — this could be a real step change for governments and organizations working through that growth. If a city is planning where to put essential services like healthcare and education, or where to develop infrastructure like water and energy supplies, this dataset shows the areas that are actively growing."
The data can be explored via a searchable map using that's accessed here.
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