EO Capability Benefits
Accurate information on the location, type and condition of transport links is essential for network analysis and infrastructure planning. Access to this type of data allows planners to map differences in connectivity across an Area of Interest, especially in towns and cities, and understand where investments in extensions or improvements will create the greatest impact. Transport network data is also essential for transport modeling to identify existing bottlenecks and simulate the effect of network changes on overall transport efficiency and the cumulative decisions of network users. Finally, these datasets are also a vital component of disaster risk management as planners can simulate how road closures, for instance due to flooding, impact the network as a whole as well as efficiency of emergency response.
EO Capability Description
Geospatial datasets depicting a Transport Network are provided in vector format, consisting of segments or links connected via nodes. A wide range of attributes can be attached to each segment indicating, for instance, its name, type (road, rail, waterway), place in the road hierarchy (e.g. arterial, collector, local), width, type of surface, speed limit, access restrictions or direction of travel. Metadata such as this can be used by traffic modelling software and GIS applications, e.g. for creating more realistic isochrones (areas accessible from a certain starting point in a certain period of time using a chosen mode of transport).
Using deep learning techniques, commercial sub-meter Very High Resolution (VHR) imagery can be used to automatically detect road surfaces and thus provide a foundation for subsequent, sometimes manual, error correction as well as labeling and adding of attributes. Recently, promising results have also been achieved with super-resolution Sentinel-2 data – that is medium resolution non-commercial imagery whose spatial resolution has been enhanced (“upsampled”) using algorithms trained for this purpose.
Indicative Cost Range Details
OpenStreetMap data is often sufficient for most use cases relying on a vector format transport network in many (but not all) regions.
EO Capability on GDA APP
Access ready-to use instances of this EO Capability on the GDA Analytics & Processing Platform (APP) below:
Indicative Cost Range
Free
