Adelaide in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Adelaide in context

2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AdelaideSouth Australia (Region)Australia (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Adelaide plotted against South Australia and Australia. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Adelaide's incremental SNDi fell from 4.6 to 2.92 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Adelaide ranked 1st out of 3 cities in South Australia and 6th out of 35 in Australia as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.92
Rank in Australia
9th of 35
Rank in South Australia
1st of 3

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.68
Rank in Australia
6th of 35
Rank in South Australia
1st of 3

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

What about similarly populated cities?

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
AdelaideShirazQuetta

In new street additions, Adelaide built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Shiraz built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Quetta fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend.