Recife in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Recife in context

2.433.64.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.433.64.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
RecifePernambuco (Region)Brazil (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Recife plotted against Pernambuco and Brazil. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Recife's incremental SNDi rose from 3.21 to 4.02 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Recife ranked 11th out of 15 cities in Pernambuco and 252nd out of 365 in Brazil as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.02
Rank in Brazil
252nd of 365
Rank in Pernambuco
14th of 15

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.83
Rank in Brazil
252nd of 365
Rank in Pernambuco
11th of 15

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
RecifeQingdaoYaounde

While Qingdao and Yaoundé both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Recife fluctuated in its street-construction patterns in new street additions. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Notably, Recife had a more connected network than Qingdao in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.