Power Grid Mapping in West Africa

Abstract YouthMappers helps to map fundamental features of rural communities across the countryside of Sierra Leone as an innovative model for how to bring power to villages across West Africa. Charting location of buildings, tracing streets, and pinpointing where utility poles dot the landscape inform efforts to design and install mini-grids in places without power or with insufficient service. By understanding settlement patterns, road connectivity, and the layout of current low-voltage distribution networks, the team speeds up and scales up design for rural electrification, contributing directly to SDG 7 to bring affordable and clean energy to communities and to SDG 9 to build resilient infrastructure in ways that foster innovation for mapping and beyond.