Pakistan Road Surface and Passability: 69,700 km of AI-Derived Metrics

HeiGIT produced this geospatial dataset covering approximately 69,700 km of arterial roads in Pakistan using AI analysis of PlanetScope satellite imagery from 2020 and 2024. It provides surface type, width, and passability metrics for motorway, trunk, primary, and secondary road classes, filling gaps where OpenStreetMap data is missing.

Use Cases

• Assessing logistical accessibility for aid delivery using the Humanitarian Passability Index (HPI)
• Identifying infrastructure development by monitoring Road Surface Change from 2020 to 2024
• Routing heavy vehicles based on Road Width Class constraints to avoid blockages

Strengths

• 89.2% surface prediction accuracy
• Covers 69,700 km of arterial roads
• Includes temporal change detection between 2020 and 2024
• Provides a derived Humanitarian Passability Index (HPI)

Limitations

• Analysis is limited to arterial roads and excludes local or residential street classes
• Road width is categorized into three discrete classes rather than continuous meter measurements
• AI-derived predictions may contain errors compared to ground-level verification

Provenance

Source

Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology (HeiGIT)

Collection Method

AI-derived predictions from PlanetScope satellite imagery combined with OpenStreetMap road network data

Time Range

2020 - 2024

Freshness

Includes satellite-derived data from 2020 and 2024; metadata last updated March 2026.

Geography

Pakistan