Foumban in context: Street-network sprawl trends

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Foumban plotted against Ouest and Cameroon. The SNDi of new construction in Foumban peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Ouest which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Cameroon which rose steadily. Most recently, Foumban's incremental SNDi fell from 4.08 to 4.03 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Foumban ranked 3rd out of 5 cities in Ouest and 25th out of 44 in Cameroon as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Chiping, China
• Sonsonate, El Salvador
• Zhongxiang, China
• Dazhu, China
• Jagdishpur, India
• সুখানপুকুর, Bangladesh

In new street additions, Foumban built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Chiping built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Dazhu built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Foumban and Dazhu both became progressively more disconnected, while Chiping became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Foumban and Dazhu have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.