Data Centers Are Eating The World 🌍

An open-source, automated mapping project that makes the invisible infrastructure powering our digital lives visible—starting with Kenya, expanding globally.

🎯 What is This?

An interactive, real-time mapping platform that:

• Makes Infrastructure Visible - Interactive maps showing every data center
• Tracks Growth Over Time - Timeline showing infrastructure expansion
• Reveals Impact - Visualize power consumption and economic investment
• Stays Current - Automated scrapers pull data from multiple sources

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ and npm
• Python 3.9+
• PostgreSQL 14+ with PostGIS extension

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone [your-repo-url]
cd data_centers_mapping

# Install all dependencies
npm run install:all

# Install Python dependencies
cd scraper && pip install -r requirements.txt

Setup Database

# Create PostgreSQL database with PostGIS
createdb datacenter_map
psql datacenter_map -c "CREATE EXTENSION postgis;"

# Run migrations
npm run db:setup
npm run db:migrate

Configuration

Create .env files in both backend/ and frontend/:

backend/.env

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://localhost:5432/datacenter_map
PORT=3001
NODE_ENV=development

frontend/.env

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:3001
VITE_MAPBOX_TOKEN=your_mapbox_token_here

Run the Application

# Start both frontend and backend
npm run dev

# Or start separately:
npm run dev:frontend  # Frontend at http://localhost:5173
npm run dev:backend   # Backend at http://localhost:3001

Run Data Scrapers

npm run scrape

News Monitor (New! 🎉)

Automatically monitors news sources for data center announcements and flags them for manual review:

cd scraper
python news_monitor.py

Or integrate into main scraper:

python main.py --include-news  # Run news monitor + normal scraping
python main.py --news-only      # Only check news (no DB updates)

How it works:

1. Scans RSS feeds from Citizen Digital, TechCrunch, Business Daily Kenya
2. Finds articles mentioning data centers, AI infrastructure, etc.
3. Generates a review report with article links
4. You manually review and add new data centers to scraper/scrapers/manual_data_scraper.py

See NEWS_MONITOR_GUIDE.md for details.

🏗️ Project Structure

data_centers_mapping/
├── frontend/          # React + TypeScript UI
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/   # UI components
│   │   ├── pages/        # Page components
│   │   ├── hooks/        # Custom hooks
│   │   ├── services/     # API services
│   │   └── types/        # TypeScript types
│   └── public/
├── backend/           # Node.js/Express API
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── routes/       # API routes
│   │   ├── controllers/  # Request handlers
│   │   ├── models/       # Database models
│   │   ├── middleware/   # Express middleware
│   │   └── utils/        # Utilities
│   └── db/
│       └── migrations/   # Database migrations
├── scraper/           # Python web scrapers
│   ├── scrapers/         # Individual scrapers
│   ├── processors/       # Data processing
│   └── data/             # Scraped data output
└── docs/              # Documentation

🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend

• React 18 + TypeScript
• Vite - Fast build tool
• Mapbox GL JS - Interactive maps
• D3.js - Data visualizations
• Tailwind CSS - Styling
• React Query - Data fetching

Backend

• Node.js + Express
• PostgreSQL + PostGIS - Geospatial database
• Prisma - Database ORM
• Node-cron - Scheduled tasks

Data Pipeline

• Python 3.9+
• BeautifulSoup4 - HTML parsing
• Selenium - Dynamic scraping
• FuzzyWuzzy - Deduplication
• Geopy - Geocoding

📊 Features

MVP (Kenya Launch)

• ✅ Interactive map with data center locations
• ✅ Filter by status, capacity, ownership type
• ✅ Detail panel for each facility
• ✅ Basic statistics dashboard
• ✅ Mobile-responsive design
• ✅ Export data (JSON, CSV, GeoJSON)

Planned Features

• Timeline slider (2010-2025)
• Layer system (power grid, fiber, cables)
• Impact calculator
• Community submissions
• Public API
• Alert system

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Ways to Contribute

• Submit data center information
• Improve scrapers
• Enhance visualizations
• Write documentation
• Report bugs

📄 License

• Code: MIT License
• Data: CC BY 4.0 (attribution required)

👨‍💻 Author & Attribution

Created by: Victor Jotham Ashioya

How to Attribute This Project

If you use this project or its data, please provide attribution:

For Code (MIT License):

Data Centers Mapping Platform by Victor Jotham Ashioya
https://github.com/ashioyajotham/data_centers_mapping

For Data (CC BY 4.0):

Data sourced from "Data Centers Are Eating The World" by Victor Jotham Ashioya
Licensed under CC BY 4.0
https://github.com/ashioyajotham/data_centers_mapping

In Academic Papers:

Ashioya, V. J. (2025). Data Centers Are Eating The World: 
An Open-Source Mapping Platform for Global Data Center Infrastructure. 
GitHub. https://github.com/ashioyajotham/data_centers_mapping

🙏 Acknowledgments

Inspired by:

• This video by High Yield (highly recommended) on AI data centers, which actually inspired the name and the project generally
• Dylan Patel and SemiAnalysis team
• Business Insider's data journalism
• Open source mapping community