Gold Coast in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Gold Coast in context

2.83.54.24.9<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.83.54.24.9<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Gold CoastQueensland (Region)Australia (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Gold Coast plotted against Queensland and Australia. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Gold Coast's incremental SNDi fell from 5.03 to 4.01 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Gold Coast ranked 9th out of 13 cities in Queensland and 30th out of 35 in Australia as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.01
Rank in Australia
24th of 35
Rank in Queensland
6th of 13

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
4.37
Rank in Australia
30th of 35
Rank in Queensland
9th of 13

Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.

What about similarly populated cities?

2.73.64.55.4<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.73.64.55.4<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Gold CoastKombolchaGondia

While Kombolcha and Gondia both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Gold Coast built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved in new street additions. Looking at the full network, Kombolcha and Gondia both became progressively more disconnected, while Gold Coast grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Gold Coast and Kombolcha have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.