Big Data tool to conduct automated roof counting to monitor poverty

In the Northern Uganda region, as in many African countries, where poverty levels are high and the majority of population is rural, a proxy indicator of poverty is the type of roof at the household.

As the household economy improves, families often upgrade their dwelling places by changing the type of roof from the traditional grass thatch to iron sheets.

A tool is under construction which uses image processing software to count the roofs and identify the type of material they are constructed from. A user-friendly tool (on-line dashboard) that provides proxies for poverty monitoring based on household's roof counting will be built. The indicators will be built on baseline data and will be automatically refreshed every week with data aggregated at the district/county level.

The indicators will be calibrated with data on poverty levels from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics.