This directory contains preliminary efforts to transfer learn a resnet originally trained to classify satellite imagery using the Planet Kaggle dataset from the challenge "understanding the Amazon from space. I am adapting this CNN to use an expanded training dataset from known mines in India, using publicly available Sentinel imagery from the European Space Agency.
Mining activity in faraway places has massive ramifications on our financial, emotional, and moral wellbeing. Being able to identify mines accurately in remote areas, using pictures from space, would be a powerful asset for tracking environmental degradation, key assets for violent non-state actors, and the welfare of the rural poor.
This is a tough problem, mostly due to a lack of data at adequate resolution and the massive computational resources required. Fortunately modern techniques are reducing the barriers to this kind of analysis.