Facebook has announced a new initiative focusing on using its data and technology to help nonprofit organizations and public health universities better map infectious disease worldwide. The initiative includes three new categories of maps: population density maps, demographic estimates, traffic maps and network coverage maps.

These maps will help health partners understand where people live, understand how they are moving, if they have an Internet connection to communicate with them, and understand all the factors that can help determine how to respond to outbreaks.

Facebook believes that organizations will be better equipped to cope with epidemics. The maps provide important information, such as the number of children under the age of five, the number of women of reproductive age, and the number of young and old.

Facebook explained that health organizations rely on outdated information such as non-updated census data and information from remote communities may be rare.

These maps were not designed using Facebook data, but using the company’s artificial intelligence capabilities, as well as satellite images and census information.

Source : Facebook