Applying astronomy tools in the field of development economics

Astronomy has largely relied on imagery and innovative data mining techniques. This article briefly illustrates the use of machine learning to create agricultural production data sets from satellite imagery to answer different development questions. Of late, astronomy has also relied on citizen science in the identification of new galaxies (a case in point is the Galaxy Zoo project). The use of citizen science in the examination of changes in urban informality patterns in developing countries (another development question) is also discussed.