How Google built the Open Buildings 2.5 Temporal Dataset

"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.

Governments, the UN and a slew of organizations, researchers and nonprofits have used Open Buildings to understand population size and distribution, enabling more effective planning for vaccination campaigns, disaster response and more. It has even enhanced Google Maps, adding millions of previously unmapped buildings...."