SC-RoadDeepNet: A New Shape and Connectivity-Preserving Road Extraction Deep Learning-Based Network From Remote Sensing Data

Existing automated road extraction approaches concentrate on regional accuracy rather than road shape and connectivity quality. Most of these techniques produce discontinuous outputs caused by obstacles, such as shadows, buildings, and vehicles. This study proposes a shape and connectivity-preserving road identification deep learning-based architecture called SC-RoadDeepNet to overcome the discontinuous results and the quality of road shape and connectivity. The proposed model comprises a state-of-the-art deep learning-based network, namely, the recurrent residual convolutional neural network, boundary learning (BL), and a new measure based on the intersection of segmentation masks and their (morphological) skeleton called connectivity-preserving centerline Dice (CP_clDice). The recurrent residual convolutional layers accumulate low-level features for segmentation tasks, thus allowing for better feature representation. Such representation enables us to construct a UNet network with the same number of network parameters but improved segmentation effectiveness. BL also aids the model in improving the road’s boundaries by penalizing boundary misclassification and fine-tuning the road form. Furthermore, the CP_clDice method aids the model in maintaining road connectivity and obtaining accurate segmentations. We demonstrate that CP_clDice ensures connection preservation for binary segmentation, thereby allowing for efficient road network extraction at the end. The proposed model improves F1 score accuracy to 5.49%, 4.03%, 3.42%, and 2.27% compared with other comparative models, such as LinkNet, ResUNet, UNet, and VNet, respectively. Furthermore, qualitative and quantitative assessments demonstrate that the proposed SC-RoadDeepNet can improve road extraction by tackling shadow and occlusion-related interruptions. These assessments can also produce high-resolution results, particularly in the area of road network completeness.