At least 80% of persons and goods in Africa are transported by road, making roads the most significant continental asset. Roads are significant, highly valuable, and unmaintained public assets. However, the high value of the road network can be rapidly compromised, as well as the safety of road users and their activities. Inadequate corridor road maintenance could result in, among other things, delivery delays, road accidents, and an increase in the cost of final products. Digitalization can aid in improving maintenance management and achieving high levels of efficiency.
Research and innovation remain the centrepiece of transport optimization through digitalization. Regarding digitalisation, ECA seeks to work with member States and corridor management organisations to harness innovative technology to improve the efficiency of regional transport corridors. It also seeks to use satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to assess the condition of transport corridors in the context of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) and the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Hence, as 80% of commodities and people in Africa are moved by road, the condition of the latter is crucial for the smooth implementation of the AfCFTA. To this end, ECA, through the Private Sector Development and Finance Division and the African Centre for Statistics, has worked with the Centre for Transport and Logistics of the Sapienza University of Rome to implement a pilot project on the LAPSSET Corridor (Lamu Port – South Sudan - Ethiopia Transport Corridor). The project resulted in the development of a methodology that uses a combination of satellite images and artificial intelligence to assess the condition of regional transport corridors.
The objective of this study research is to use satellite images and artificial intelligence to assess the condition of roads identified as critical to optimizing the benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area. In the frame of the project implementation, ECA projected to build its own capacity and that of its member States to assess regional transport corridors using satellite images and artificial intelligence.
The first phase of the project consisted in a scoping process with the definition of an assessment system based on GIS and artificial intelligence The secund phase consists in the development of an accessible GIS/AI tool for corridor management institutions and its effective use on selected corridors.