romainfourmy/satelliteimagery-impactevaluation

Use of satellite imagery in impact evaluation - Project LIVE in Rwanda # Use of satellite imagery in impact evaluation - Project LIVE in Rwanda ## About the project In impact evaluation, collecting data on the field through household surveys is often an essential process to assess the effects of an intervention. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has introduced constraints in collecting data on the field. However, the use of satellite images has emerged over the last years, which can help to provide some insights from what is happening on the ground. This technique has revealed to be powerful in calculating proxies for some development indicators. This project puts into practice the use of satellite imagery in an ongoing impact evaluation. This project looks at monitoring the evolution of a intervention's outcomes after the COVID-19 outbreak. Concerning the intervention studied, it has been implemented in rural Rwanda and aims to improve the well-being of vulnerable households, through support in agriculture and livestock production, as well as human development. Although this project is based on common practices in the field of remote sensing, it remains exploratory and open to any feedback and comments. ### Problem statement - As it was impossible to collect data on the field during 2020, what happened to the intervention's outcomes in 2020? ### Objective - Since agriculture is a strong factor to the intervention's objectives, we try to use satellite images to capture the agricultural outputs. This could then give us some insights about what happened on the ground in 2020. ### Methodology - The methodology is based on the use of the Normalized Vegetation Difference Index (NDVI) that can be calculated from the satellite images. - We calculate the NDVI for both beneficiary and control villages over time. This calculation is limited to crop areas, which can be determined based on a land use dataset. ## Slideshow A slideshow presenting the project (introduction, methodology, results, extra analyses) is available through the following link. # …