LandScan of the Caribbean

Oak Ridge’s Population Mapping
Tool Sets the Standard

LandScan of Italy

Oak Ridge, TNORNL is the largest science and energy
national laboratory in the Department ofEnergy system. ORNL’s scientiﬁc programs
focus on materials, neutron science, energy,
high-performance computing, systems biology
and national security. ORNL partners with thestate of Tennessee, universities and industries
to solve challenges in energy, advanced
materials, manufacturing, security and physics.
The laboratory’s science and technology
innovations are translated into applications foreconomic development and global security.

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When tsunamis struck the Indonesiancoast in December 2004, the destruction
left relief agencies scrambling to locate
thousands of stranded people in need ofassistance. LandScan, a global population
database developed by the Department ofEnergy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory(ORNL), was a critical part of the response.
Relief workers used LandScan population
distribution maps to quickly determine thelocations and numbers of potential tsunami
victims who would otherwise have been cut
off from communication.

Although LandScan was initially developed
for military purposes, researchers at ORNL
have encouraged its wider use. After Rand
McNally asked to use LandScan informationin its maps, “we investigated how to dothat,” said Bright. Map publishers, as wellas The New York Times, bought the earliest
commercial versions of the product. Since
2004, the LandScan dataset has beencommercially licensed and distributed
through CDs.

Formerly known as the LandScan High
Resolution Global Population Dataset, thedataset was created in the late 1990s, and hassince become the gold standard in population
mapping tools for public safety, sustainable
development, environmental protection,
disaster response and humanitarian relief. In
2011, a commercial partner was granted anexclusive license to distribute the product.

LandScan determines
the populationof every square
kilometer in theworld over a 24-hour
period – the finest
resolution available.

LandScan determines the population of every
square kilometer in the world over a 24hour period—the finest resolution available.
The technology uses innovative algorithms
to determine population based on satellite
images of buildings, roads, and other manmade structures. Other sources include
local census data, geographical informationsuch as the slope of the land—which canindicate suitability for housing—as well as theintensity of surrounding agriculture.

Over the years, LandScan has been used ina wide variety of applications, from helping
to determine where to locate nuclear power
plants, to anticipating population demands
on resources such as water and energy, toanalyzing the effects of global climate change.
In 2006, LandScan won an R&D 100 Award
from R&D Magazine.

Population data from LandScan can beoverlaid on maps or images so users canquickly visualize where there are large
numbers of people, according to Eddie Bright,
LandScan project leader at ORNL.

FEDERAL LABORATORY CONSORTIUM FOR TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

Users include educational, humanitarian,
research, and corporate organizations, aswell as government officials. In the wakeof Hurricane Katrina in 2005, for example,
LandScan-produced images were used tobrief President Bush about the coast’s affected
population.

Information from LandScan can be particularly valuable in natural
disasters, Bright said. “With an earthquake, tsunami or flood, forexample, you can tell in a second how many people are affected. You
don’t have to look up atlases for every little town.”
In 2011, East View Cartographic of Minneapolis was granted an
exclusive commercial copyright license for LandScan. At the time,
ORNL Director Thom Mason said that LandScan has become oneof the lab’s most successfully licensed products. “This agreement with
East View Cartographic will help put this valuable population dataset
into the hands of more users,” he said.
East View Cartographic is a leading provider of authoritative
worldwide maps, geospatial data, and geographic information

system (GIS) production services. Company founder and CEOKent D. Lee said that “in addition to being a powerful database forenvironmental and humanitarian applications, we have seen strong
demand from telecom, insurance and avionics customers from aroundthe world.” East View, he said, “has already split the LandScan data
into regional and country-specific packages and now, as the exclusive
distributor, we intend to load the content and offer affordable annual
subscriptions.”
The LandScan team at ORNL continues to make annual
improvements to the population distribution information, using
new spatial data, imagery, census information and algorithm
improvements.

TECHNOLOGY FOR TODAY

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