Benin Arterial Road Network: AI-Derived Surface and Passability Data

Benin arterial road network analysis covering approximately 6,000 km, produced by HeiGIT using PlanetScope satellite imagery from 2020 and 2024. It provides AI-derived surface types, width classifications, and passability indices for motorways, trunks, and primary or secondary roads. The dataset specifically fills attribute gaps for the 10.7% of Benin's arterial roads that lack surface tags in OpenStreetMap.

Use Cases

• Logistics planning using the Humanitarian Passability Index (HPI) to identify accessible routes for heavy trucks
• Infrastructure development monitoring by analyzing Road Surface Change (2020-2024) to detect unpaved-to-paved transitions
• Vehicle routing optimization based on Road Width Class to determine if segments support two-lane heavy truck flow

Strengths

• 89.2% accuracy for AI-derived surface predictions compared to 64.7% for OSM tags
• Multi-temporal coverage comparing 2020 and 2024 road states
• Fills surface tag gaps for 89.5% of previously unmapped OSM arterial segments in Benin

Limitations

• Geographic scope restricted to arterial road classes only
• AI-derived attributes are probabilistic and may differ from ground-level reality

Provenance

Source

HeiGIT (Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology)

Collection Method

Deep learning models applied to PlanetScope satellite imagery (2020 and 2024) integrated with OpenStreetMap road segments.

Time Range

2020-2024

Freshness

Last updated March 2026; contains imagery-derived data from 2020 and 2024.

Geography

Benin