Tanzania Arterial Roads: 29,100 km of AI-Derived Surface and Width Data

29,100 km of arterial roads in Tanzania analyzed by HeiGIT using PlanetScope satellite imagery from 2020 and 2024. The data provides AI-derived surface types, width classifications, and passability scores for motorway, trunk, primary, and secondary road segments.

Use Cases

• Logistics routing using the Humanitarian Passability Index (HPI) to assess vehicle accessibility
• Infrastructure development tracking via the Road Surface Change attribute
• Emergency response planning using Road Width Class to identify potential bottlenecks for heavy machinery

Strengths

• 89.2% surface model accuracy
• Covers 29,100 km of arterial roads
• Multi-temporal comparison between 2020 and 2024
• Fills surface tag gaps for 90% of roads missing OSM data

Limitations

• Geographic scope limited to arterial road network
• AI-derived predictions rather than ground-truth observations
• Potential for classification errors in dense urban or heavily forested areas

Provenance

Source

HeiGIT (Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology)

Collection Method

Deep learning inference on PlanetScope satellite imagery integrated with OpenStreetMap road geometries

Time Range

2020 - 2024

Freshness

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

Geography

Tanzania