Bruges in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Bruges in context

1.42.12.83.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.42.12.83.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BrugesVlaanderen (Region)Belgium (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Bruges plotted against Vlaanderen and Belgium. The SNDi of new construction in Bruges peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Vlaanderen which rose steadily and Belgium which rose steadily. Most recently, Bruges's incremental SNDi fell from 3.01 to 2.07 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Bruges ranked 1st out of 9 cities in Vlaanderen and 2nd out of 16 in Belgium as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.07
Rank in Belgium
1st of 16
Rank in Vlaanderen
1st of 9

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
1.81
Rank in Belgium
2nd of 16
Rank in Vlaanderen
1st of 9

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

What about similarly populated cities?

23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BrugesKandharPrachin Buri

While Kandhar and Prachin Buri both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Bruges built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved in new street additions. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Bruges and Kandhar have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.