Equipped with an inexpensive camera and a big red balloon, Firas Ismail - a 20-year-old Palestinian refugee in southern Lebanon - is not your typical urban planner.

But the aerial shots he helped capture of the Burj al-Shamali refugee camp, near the Mediterranean coastal city of Tyre, will help residents plan out everything from future green spaces to health inspections.

"From below, you can't really tell anything about the camp. But from above, you can see just how dense the buildings are and how little space there is," Ismail said.