Porto Alegre in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Porto Alegre in context

2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Porto AlegreRio Grande do Sul (Region)Brazil (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Porto Alegre plotted against Rio Grande do Sul and Brazil. The SNDi of new construction in Porto Alegre rose steadily, compared to Rio Grande do Sul which rose steadily and Brazil which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Porto Alegre's incremental SNDi rose from 3.94 to 4.49 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Porto Alegre ranked 19th out of 22 cities in Rio Grande do Sul and 271st out of 365 in Brazil as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.49
Rank in Brazil
287th of 365
Rank in Rio Grande do Sul
17th of 22

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.0
Rank in Brazil
271st of 365
Rank in Rio Grande do Sul
19th of 22

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Porto AlegreYogyakartaGujranwala

Porto Alegre, Yogyakarta, and Gujranwala all built increasingly disconnected streets over time in new street construction. The same pattern holds for the full street network. Porto Alegre and Yogyakarta have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.