CadastreVision: A benchmark dataset for cadastral boundary delineation from multi-resolution earth observation images

Abstract

Approximately 70%–75% of people worldwide have no formally registered land rights. Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration was introduced to address this problem and focuses on delineating visible cadastral boundaries from earth observation imagery. Recent studies have shown the potential of deep learning models to extract these visible cadastral boundaries automatically. However, studies are limited by the small size and geographical coverage of available datasets and by the lack of information about which cadastral boundaries are visible, i.e., associated with a physical object boundary. To overcome these problems, we present CadastreVision, a benchmark dataset containing cadastral reference data and corresponding multi-resolution earth observation imagery from The Netherlands, with a spatial resolution ranging from 0.1 m to 10 m. The ratio between visible and non-visible cadastral boundaries is essential to evaluate the potential automation level in cadastral boundary extraction from earth observation images and interpret results obtained by deep learning models. We investigate this ratio using a novel analysis pipeline that overlays cadastral reference data with visible topographic object boundaries. Our results show that approximately 72% of the total length of cadastral boundaries in The Netherlands are visible. CadastreVision will enable new developments in cadastral boundary delineation and future endeavours to investigate knowledge transfer to data-scarce areas. Our data and code is available at https://github.com/jeroengrift/cadastrevision.