Al Zaatari Refugee Camp Satellite-Detected Shelters and Buildings, 2014

Satellite-detected shelters and infrastructure buildings at the Al Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. The dataset contains 29,243 shelters and 1,915 support buildings across 534.4 hectares as of November 2014, with change analysis between July and November 2014. It was produced by the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) and is a preliminary, unvalidated analysis.

Use Cases

• Monitor shelter construction and demolition rates based on satellite-detected change analysis.
• Estimate camp population density based on detected shelter counts and average household size.
• Plan humanitarian service delivery based on the spatial distribution of infrastructure and support buildings.
• Assess camp evolution over time based on the documented decrease in shelter count.

Strengths

• Provides precise counts of 29,243 shelters and 1,915 infrastructure buildings.
• Covers a defined area of 534.4 hectares with a stated spatial error margin of +/- three meters.
• Includes temporal analysis showing a net decrease of 739 shelters between two dates in 2014.

Limitations

• Data is a preliminary analysis and has not been validated in the field.
• Shelter counts grouped under plastic sheeting were estimated and may be a source of error.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT)

Collection Method

Satellite imagery analysis.

Time Range

Assessment dates of July and November 2014.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-09 09:44:37.013938; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Al Zaatari refugee camp, Mafraq Governorate, Jordan.