Kibango 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 Kibango plotted against Haut-Lomami and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Kibango was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Haut-Lomami which rose steadily and Democratic Republic of the Congo which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Kibango's incremental SNDi rose from 3.7 to 4.58 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Kibango ranked 6th out of 17 cities in Haut-Lomami and 41st 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?

• Lafey, Kenya
• Ouélessébougou, Mali
• Chato, Tanzania
• Songwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Loutu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Muhajiriyah, Sudan

In new street additions, Kibango and Songwe both built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Lafey fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Kibango became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards, while Lafey fluctuated in connectivity and Songwe became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Notably, Kibango had a more sprawly network than Songwe in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.