Brasilia in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Brasilia in context

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
BrasiliaDistrito Federal (Region)Brazil (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Brasilia plotted against Distrito Federal and Brazil. The SNDi of new construction in Brasilia rose steadily, compared to Distrito Federal which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Brazil which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Brasilia's incremental SNDi rose from 3.88 to 5.1 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Brasilia ranked 7th out of 9 cities in Distrito Federal and 317th out of 365 in Brazil as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
5.1
Rank in Brazil
317th of 365
Rank in Distrito Federal
8th of 9

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.58
Rank in Brazil
317th of 365
Rank in Distrito Federal
7th of 9

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
BrasiliaSurakartaXuzhou

In new street additions, Brasilia built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Surakarta fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Xuzhou built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Brasilia and Surakarta both became progressively more disconnected, while Xuzhou became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Notably, Brasilia had a more connected network than Surakarta in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.