Montserrat Road Surface, Width, and Passability (2020–2024)

HeiGIT produced this dataset of AI-derived road surface, width, and passability metrics for arterial roads in Montserrat using PlanetScope satellite imagery from 2020 and 2024. It classifies motorway, trunk, primary, and secondary road segments to provide consistent coverage where OpenStreetMap data is missing or incomplete.

Use Cases

• Monitoring infrastructure upgrades by identifying transitions from unpaved to paved in the 'Road Surface Change' field
• Route optimization for heavy machinery using 'Road Width Class' to find segments wider than 5.5 meters (Class 3)
• Emergency response planning using the 'Humanitarian Passability Index' to assess logistical accessibility

Strengths

• 89.2% accuracy for surface model predictions compared to 64.7% for OSM tags
• Multi-temporal comparison between 2020 and 2024 for change detection
• Standardized 6-point Humanitarian Passability Index for logistical planning

Limitations

• Geographic scope is limited to Montserrat
• Excludes lower-tier road classifications like residential or unclassified roads
• AI-derived predictions may contain classification errors compared to physical ground-truth inspections

Provenance

Source

HeiGIT (Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology)

Collection Method

Deep learning models applied to PlanetScope satellite imagery and integrated with OpenStreetMap data

Time Range

2020 - 2024

Freshness

Based on imagery from 2020 and 2024; last updated March 2026.

Geography

Montserrat