Kilwa 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 Kilwa plotted against Haut-Katanga and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Kilwa followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to Haut-Katanga which peaked in 1976-1990 and Democratic Republic of the Congo which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Kilwa's incremental SNDi fell from 1.34 to 1.25 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Kilwa ranked 2nd out of 17 cities in Haut-Katanga and 6th out of 186 in Democratic Republic of the Congo as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Târgu Mureș, Romania
• Zhenxiabo, China
• Ali Mendjeli, Algeria
• Jiande, China
• Ciudad Acuña, México
• Funchal, Portugal

While Târgu Mureș and Jiande both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Kilwa fluctuated in its street-construction patterns in new street additions. Looking at the full network, Târgu Mureș and Jiande both became progressively more disconnected, while Kilwa became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Kilwa and Târgu Mureș have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.