torchgeo-bench

September 20, 2026 · View on GitHub

CI PyPI version Python 3.12+ License: MIT

A lightweight benchmarking framework for evaluating frozen geospatial foundation models on GeoBench V1/V2 and location encoders on CoordBench. Plug in a backbone or coordinate encoder and run consistent downstream probes through explicit CLI flags and strictly validated Pydantic YAML configuration.

  • Frozen-backbone evaluation — KNN-5, L-BFGS logistic regression, and linear / conv / FPN / DPT segmentation probes.
  • GeoBench V1 + V2 built in — classification and segmentation, RGB or full multispectral / multi-modal stacks.
  • CoordBench built in — coordinate-only regression and classification with random, spatial-block, and official holdouts.
  • Config-driven — sweep models, datasets, partitions, image sizes, and bands without code changes.
  • Resumable — --resume skips already-computed (dataset, method, model, …) rows. Atomic CSV appends are safe across parallel jobs.
  • Bring your own model — copy contrib_template.py, implement _forward_patch_features, and add a one-file model config. See the Stage 1 guide for a full walkthrough, or the Stage 2 guide to contribute the model back upstream.

Installation

pip install torchgeo-bench

For development:

git clone https://github.com/torchgeo/torchgeo-bench
cd torchgeo-bench
uv sync --extra dev

Requires Python 3.12+ and runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. On Linux x86_64 the install automatically includes GPU-accelerated FAISS KNN (CUDA 12, driver R525+, also works on GPU-less machines); other platforms get CPU FAISS.

Download a dataset

The runner expects datasets under ./data/. To grab GeoBench V1:

torchgeo-bench download geobench_v1

To download only the datasets needed for a run:

torchgeo-bench download geobench_v1 --datasets m-eurosat

V1 uses the pickle-free JSON-metadata mirror under data/classification_v1.0_wds/, with a pinned revision and archive SHA-256 verification. Re-download existing pickle-based V1 caches; the readers no longer unpickle metadata.

V2 (classification + segmentation) and torchgeo's EuroSAT downloader work the same way (torchgeo-bench download geobench_v2, torchgeo-bench download eurosat). See the documentation for all options.

Run a basic experiment

# Inspect available presets and datasets without loading ML dependencies
torchgeo-bench models
torchgeo-bench datasets

# A single dataset with a pretrained ImageNet ResNet-50
torchgeo-bench run --model timm/resnet50 --dataset m-eurosat

The default device is cuda:0. On a machine without a working CUDA GPU (or if a GPU run crashes — see troubleshooting), fall back to CPU:

torchgeo-bench run --model rcf --dataset m-eurosat --device cpu

Results are appended to results/models/<model name>.csv, which ship pre-populated with reference results. To start from a clean slate, pass --output results/my_run.csv or set output.file in a YAML file passed with --config. Re-run the same command with --resume to skip completed rows. Each evaluation is saved as soon as it finishes, so a later failure does not discard completed metrics.

# Linear-only probing, with explicit flags overriding the YAML
torchgeo-bench run --config docs/examples/image-run.yaml --methods linear --device cpu

# Validate selections without loading a model or dataset
torchgeo-bench run --model rcf --dataset m-eurosat --dry-run

See docs/examples/image-run.yaml for the image configuration fields and run --config-help for the JSON schema. Omitted settings inherit model and dataset defaults; explicit YAML values override them, and supplied flags override YAML. This includes explicit false, null, and [].

torchgeo-bench, python -m torchgeo_bench, and python -m torchgeo_bench.cli expose the same commands. The old key=value and +key=value overrides are rejected; migrate scripts to flags or YAML. There is no separate legacy configuration entry point.

Measure encoder cost

The standalone profile command measures one fixed real dataset batch and writes JSON to stdout. The flops command uses synthetic inputs, does not load dataset samples, and appends compute measurements to a CSV:

torchgeo-bench profile --model rcf --dataset m-eurosat --device cpu \
  --batch-size 8 --warmup 1 --measurements 5 > profile.json

torchgeo-bench flops --model rcf --device cpu --band-configs rgb \
  --seg-heads --output results/my_compute_cost.csv

Both accept --config and --dry-run. See docs/examples/profile.yaml, docs/examples/flops.yaml, and the configuration reference. Optional profile and intrinsic_dim passes within an image run retain their separate per-model CSVs unless output.file explicitly combines them.

Handcrafted classification baseline

The handcrafted model adds deterministic spectral and spatial measurements to the ImageStats baseline. The handcrafted_level1, handcrafted_level2, and handcrafted_level3 presets select cumulative feature sets; handcrafted defaults to level 2. Feature width depends on the input bands and available spectral indices.

Download the classification datasets and run the level sweep from this checkout:

python -m torchgeo_bench download geobench_v1
python -m torchgeo_bench download geobench_v2 --datasets benv2,treesatai,so2sat,forestnet
python -m torchgeo_bench download eurosat
python -m torchgeo_bench download resisc45
python -m torchgeo_bench download aid
python experiments/run_handcrafted.py

Future sweeps include ImageStats as level 0 and every classification protocol in the current dataset catalog, including AID, multilabel datasets and EuroSAT's spatial split. They use all bands with identity input normalization, otherwise retaining the normal 224px resize, KNN-5, validation-selected C, train-plus-validation final refit, and 200 bootstrap draws.

Results go to separate results/models/handcrafted_level*.csv files and imagestats_handcrafted_control.csv. Feature lists and completion status are saved under outputs/handcrafted/. Resume skips matching completed rows; a missing linear or KNN result is still reported as a failure. Summaries, including --report-only, select only rows matching the current configuration and requested devices, so historical hashes are not mixed into new comparisons.

The checked-in CSVs are unchanged historical measurements on 13 protocols from the original handcrafted study, not measurements of the current runner; they contain no AID results. Their recorded numbers and configuration hashes are preserved. Current runs use the current configuration hash and do not treat these historical rows as completed work. Use --output-dir results/handcrafted-current to keep a new sweep separate.

Use --levels 1 2, --datasets eurosat resisc45, or --dry-run for a smaller run. The extractor also works through the normal CLI:

python -m torchgeo_bench run --model handcrafted_level2 \
  --dataset eurosat --bands all --normalization none

All four presets default to all bands and identity normalization. Custom YAML can set model: {name: handcrafted, kwargs: {level: 3}}; preprocessing belongs under input, not constructor kwargs.

CoordBench — location encoders

torchgeo-bench coord runs the coordinate-only track: point (lon, lat) in, a downstream label out. Benchmarks are streamed directly from the unified taylor-geospatial/coordbench HuggingFace dataset (PDFM, SatCLIP, SustainBench, CDC PLACES, MOSAIKS/USAVars, the DeepMind/AlphaEarth suite, and more — no local download). A frozen encoder is probed with KNN and a ridge linear head under random or spatial-block cross-validation (regression → R², classification → accuracy).

# MIND on the full suite, using random and spatial cross-validation
torchgeo-bench coord --model mind --dataset all --split both

# One dataset family with the sine/cosine baseline and a linear probe
torchgeo-bench coord --model sincos --dataset pdfm --methods linear

--model mind and --model mind-small (MIND, distilled from AlphaEarth/Climplicit/GeoCLIP/SINR) and --model sincos work with the base install. The other pretrained encoders (SatCLIP / GeoCLIP / Climplicit / SINR, via rshf) need the coordbench extra: pip install "torchgeo-bench[coordbench]", then --model climplicit (etc.). Results land in results/coordbench_results.csv. Add your own encoder by subclassing LocationEncoder (implement _encode) and setting model.target to its importable Python name, with constructor options under model.kwargs. See the CoordBench guide and the runnable FourierLocationEncoder example.

Learn more

  • Documentation — full configuration reference, available models, dataset tables, multi-band experiments, evaluation methodology, output schema, dev / release workflow, and troubleshooting.
  • AGENTS.md — contributor guide and house style.
  • Cleanlab analysis — standalone dataset auditing, probability extraction, and review galleries, with separate dependencies.

Citation

If you use this framework, please cite it (once the torchgeo-bench paper is available):

@misc{torchgeobench,
  title  = {torchgeo-bench: A lightweight benchmarking framework for geospatial foundation models},
  author = {torchgeo-bench Contributors},
  year   = {TBD},
  note   = {Software},
  url    = {https://github.com/torchgeo/torchgeo-bench}
}

License

MIT.