Thursday, September 3, 2026
Science

Global road map tracks four years of infrastructure change using AI

The United Nations considers well-developed and safe roads an important part of infrastructure in its Sustainable Development Goals. Until now, however, there has been no benchmark for the condition and state of road networks worldwide. Researchers at the Institute of Geography at Heidelberg Univers...

Global road map tracks four years of infrastructure change using AI
Image: Phys.org
The United Nations considers well-developed and safe roads an important part of infrastructure in its Sustainable Development Goals. Until now, however, there has been no benchmark for the condition and state of road networks worldwide. Researchers at the Institute of Geography at Heidelberg University and HeiGIT (Heidelberg Institute of Geoinformation Technology) have addressed this gap by using artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to create an open-access dataset that maps and classifies more than 9 million kilometers of roads worldwide.

Originally published at Phys.org

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