Shining a Light on Economic Inequality
Professor John Gibson from the University of Waikato and co-investigator Professor Xiangzheng Deng from the Chinese Academy of Sciences know that big data from satellites observing the earth can be critical to improving public policy and economic research.
A case in point is economic inequality, the reduction of which is Sustainable Development Goal number 10 set by the United Nations.
Many countries lack the data to measure economic inequality at local levels, especially in developing countries. A popular workaround has been to use satellite data on night-time lights because more prosperous and economically active areas tend to be more brightly lit.
Yet not all satellites and sensors are suited to this task, so Professors Gibson and Deng, along with PhD student Xiaoxuan Zhang, have recently published a study that interrogates the accuracy of the data and reveals a better way to capture this data for a more equal society.
A summary update of this Marsden funded work is on the Royal Society Te Apārangi website - https://www.royalsociety.org.nz/research/economic-inequality/
The early view of the latest published paper is at https://rsaiconnect.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rsp3.12716
Learn about the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals at https://sdgs.un.org/goals