Historical road network of Kenya (1950s – 1980s) extracted from topographic maps (Version 1.2)
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| Title: | Main Title: Historical road network of Kenya (1950s – 1980s) extracted from topographic maps (Version 1.2) |
| Description: | Abstract: This dataset includes a shapefile representing the digitized historical road network of Kenya. It contains over 56,000 km of historical roads extracted from 449 historical topographic maps of 1:50,000 scale and 71 maps of 1:100,000 scale covering the time period from the 1950s to the 1980s. The topographic maps were obtained from various sources in Kenya and the UK. Most of maps were collected in Kenya provided by the Survey of Kenya and several local county governments’ survey and urban planning departments. Additionally, some maps were obtained from archives in Great Britain, namely the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford and the Cambridge University Library. All the acquired maps were originally created and published by the Directorate of Overseas Surveys (DOS), the War Office, General Staff, Geographical Section and the Survey of Kenya. The road data was extracted from these maps using deep learning techniques, including a Python script and ArcGIS Pro “Multi-Task Road Extractor” tool. A supplementary shapefile has been included in the dataset, encompassing all regions of missing map coverage. |
| Identifier: | 10.5880/TRR228DB.37 (DOI) |
| Related Resources: | Is New Version Of Dataset https://dx.doi.org/10.5880/TRR228DB.18 (DOI) Is New Version Of Dataset 10.5880/TRR228DB.22 (DOI) Is Described By Data Paper 10.1038/s41597-025-05442-6 (DOI) |
Responsible Party
| Creators: | Tanja Kramm (Author), Nicodemus Nyamari (Author), Vincent Moseti (Author), Annika Klee (Author), Leon Vehlken (Author), David M. Anderson (Author), Christina Bogner (Author), Georg Bareth (Author) |
| Funding Reference: | Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG): CRC/TRR 228: Future Rural Africa: Future-making and social-ecological transformation |
| Publisher: | TRR228 Database (TRR228DB) |
| Publication Year: | 2025 |
Topic
| Subjects: | Keywords: Road Network, Roads, Geodata, Historical Data, Vector Data, GIS, Africa, African History, Historical Maps STW entries: Infrastructure, Road, Geographic information system, Data TheSoz entries: road network, road, data, infrastructure development |
| Geogr. Information Topic: | Imagery/Base Maps/Earth Cover |
File Details
| Filename: | Kenya_HistRoads_1950_1980_V1_2.zip |
| Data Type: | Dataset - Shapefile |
| File Size: | 23.7 MB |
| Dates: | Available: 26.04.2024 Updated: 14.05.2025 |
| Mime Type: | application/zip |
| Language: | English |
Archive Content
Constraints
| Download Permission: | Free |
| Licence: | [Creative Commons] Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) |
Geographic
Metadata Details
| Metadata Creator: | Tanja Kramm |
| Metadata Created: | 14.05.2025 |
| Metadata Last Updated: | 07.07.2025 |
| Subproject: | Z2 |
| Funding Phase: | 2 |
| Metadata Language: | English |
| Metadata Version: | V50 |
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Dataset Statistics
| Page Visits: | 123 |
| Metadata Downloads: | 21 |
| Dataset Downloads: | 6 |
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Adequate reference when this dataset will be discussed or used in any publication or presentation is mandatory. In this case please contact the dataset creator.
Adequate reference when this dataset will be discussed or used in any publication or presentation is mandatory. In this case please contact the dataset creator.
