Ostend in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Ostend 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
OstendVlaanderen (Region)Belgium (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Ostend plotted against Vlaanderen and Belgium. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Ostend's incremental SNDi rose from 3.21 to 3.86 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Ostend ranked 3rd out of 9 cities in Vlaanderen and 4th out of 16 in Belgium as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.86
Rank in Belgium
12th of 16
Rank in Vlaanderen
7th of 9

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
1.96
Rank in Belgium
4th of 16
Rank in Vlaanderen
3rd of 9

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

What about similarly populated cities?

123456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
123456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
OstendDormaa AhenkroDamshir

Ostend, Dormaa Ahenkro, and Damshir all built increasingly disconnected streets over time in new street construction. The same pattern holds for the full street network. Ostend and Dormaa Ahenkro have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.