POPULATION ESTIMATION FROM HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE IMAGERY: A CASE STUDY FROM KHARTOUM

Population estimation is essential for decision-makers in many ways. It allows better planning of health, urban development, education, utility services, etc. However, ground survey methods e.g. direct enumeration are both expensive and time-consuming .Aerial survey and photo interpretationmethods proved to be effective. However, flying aerial photography specifically for population estimation is also expensive. High resolution satellite imagery holds promise to be a suitable alternative to ground survey and aerial photo interpretation techniques. In this paper results of a research work concerned with population estimation of a district in Khartoum using an Ikonos image of the test area are presented. The two techniques of dwelling unit and residentialarea were used .Based on an oldfigure for population, the compound interest formula was also used to estimate population .The results showed that high resolution satellite imagery as acquired from new generation satellite systems can be used for population estimationto an accuracy better than 5%. This is a worthwhile finding for developing countries where resources allotted to such surveys are usually scarce.