用遥感数据预测非洲贫困水平,同时给出可信的误差范围。
Beyond Point Predictions: Uncertainty-Aware Satellite Poverty Mapping for Public Policy

- 结合分位数回归与新型校准方法,生成有统计保证的预测区间。
- 模型在非洲100万以上街区的贫困指数预测中达到R²=0.75,覆盖率达目标水平。
- 为政策制定提供可信赖的援助分配方案,避免遗漏真正需要帮助的地区。
尽管对政策与研究至关重要,非洲大部分地区的高分辨率贫困数据仍然匮乏。机器学习结合地球观测(EO)影像近年来被用于估算未直接测量区域的贫困状况。然而,决策者需要可靠的信心,以避免被预测误差误导。为此,我们提出一种基于时空变压器(处理Landsat和夜光影像序列)的不确定性感知型EO-ML方法,结合分位数回归与新型保形预测,生成非洲社区级国际财富指数的预测区间,其覆盖率经统计验证达到预定水平。尽管该方法点预测性能达到当前最优(R²=0.75),但预测区间较预期宽,表明即使解释力强,遥感-机器学习仍存在内在不确定性。为此,我们设计了一种高效援助分配流程,同时利用真实调查数据与模型预测,在可证明风险可控的前提下确保不遗漏符合条件的地区。模拟显示,该策略显著提升了每位合格受助者的援助量,证明遥感-机器学习可作为传统数据的可靠补充。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Despite their critical importance for policy and research, high-resolution poverty data remain limited across much of Africa. Machine learning (ML) with earth observation (EO) imagery has recently emerged as a way to supplement these data by predicting (i.e., estimating) poverty where it has not been directly measured. Yet to be used reliably, decision-makers and analysts need assurances that they will not be misled by the errors in these predictions. To meet this need, we develop an uncertainty-aware EO-ML method for poverty mapping based on simultaneous quantile regression and a novel form of conformal prediction. Using a spatiotemporal transformer trained on sequences of Landsat and nighttime-light images, we produce prediction intervals for neighborhood-level International Wealth Index estimates across Africa which are statistically guaranteed to achieve their desired coverage rates. While our method's point-prediction performance matches the state of the art, its prediction intervals are wider than might be expected given its high $R^2$ of $0.75$. However, other models of similar accuracy likely suffer from comparable uncertainty, pointing to an inherent limitation: even with its remarkably high explanatory power, EO-ML cannot naively be relied upon for policy-making, such as when designing poverty-targeting programs. To handle this challenge, we develop a procedure to efficiently allocate aid using both ground-truth surveys and model predictions while provably ensuring the risk of excluding eligible neighborhoods remains below a prespecified level. In simulations, this approach delivers substantially more aid per eligible recipient than other strategies, thereby demonstrating that EO-ML can indeed be a reliable supplement to traditional data sources.
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