Mukubu 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 Mukubu plotted against Haut-Lomami and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Mukubu peaked in 1991-2005, 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, Mukubu's incremental SNDi fell from 5.92 to 3.58 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Mukubu ranked 9th out of 17 cities in Haut-Lomami and 56th 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?

• Xinzhuangying, China
• Abbotsford, Canada
• Cotorro, Cuba
• Qingan, China
• Qingtian, China
• Oyama, Japan

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