Costa Rica Road Surface and Passability Data for 5,400 km of Arterials

HeiGIT produced this dataset covering approximately 5,400 km of arterial roads in Costa Rica using PlanetScope satellite imagery from 2020 and 2024. It features AI-derived attributes for road surface, width, and a Humanitarian Passability Index (HPI) to supplement OpenStreetMap data. The analysis focuses on motorway, trunk, primary, and secondary road classes.

Use Cases

• Evaluating disaster response logistics using the 'Humanitarian Passability Index (HPI)'
• Identifying infrastructure upgrades by filtering for 'Road Surface Change' from unpaved to paved
• Estimating vehicle throughput capacity based on 'Road Width Class'

Strengths

• 89.2% accuracy for AI-derived surface predictions
• Covers 5,400 km of arterial road infrastructure
• Multi-temporal comparison between 2020 and 2024 imagery

Limitations

• Geographic scope limited to arterial road classes
• AI-derived predictions may have errors compared to ground-level surveys
• License is hdx-other which may have specific usage restrictions

Provenance

Source

HeiGIT (Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology)

Collection Method

AI-derived predictions from PlanetScope satellite imagery integrated with OpenStreetMap attributes

Time Range

2020-2024

Freshness

Contains imagery-derived data from 2020 and 2024; last updated March 2026.

Geography

Costa Rica