Lubumbashi in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Lubumbashi 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
LubumbashiHaut-Katanga (Region)Democratic Republic of the Congo (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Lubumbashi plotted against Haut-Katanga and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Lubumbashi peaked in 1976-1990, 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, Lubumbashi's incremental SNDi fell from 2.66 to 2.59 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Lubumbashi ranked 11th out of 17 cities in Haut-Katanga and 60th out of 186 in Democratic Republic of the Congo as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.59
Rank in Democratic Republic of the Congo
33rd of 186
Rank in Haut-Katanga
10th of 17

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.57
Rank in Democratic Republic of the Congo
60th of 186
Rank in Haut-Katanga
11th of 17

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.533.54<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.533.54<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
LubumbashiCotonouLisbon

In new street additions, Lubumbashi built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Cotonou fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Lisbon built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Lubumbashi and Cotonou have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.