File this one under “applications of population density”.
Researchers working for Nippon Telephone and Telegraph—better
known as NTT—discovered they could use an area’s population
density to predict telecommunications equipment failure due to
lighting strikes. Telecommunications is an expensive business.
Like other infrastructure, it requires a lot of manpower and
capital to expand and maintain. But unlike many other systems,
telecommunications—especially cellular network technology—has
been advancing at a breakneck pace, requiring equipment to be
upgraded or replaced every few years to stay current.
Furthermore, the equipment is both delicate and expensive.
Something like a lightning strike can easily cost tens to
hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair. The NTT researchers
were interested in predicting where lightning strikes would
exact the most damage in coming years, especially since some
climate models predict more severe weather, which can lead to
more lightning. The study focused on three prefectur