Mweka 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 Mweka plotted against Kasaï and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Mweka followed a zig-zag trend with an overall decrease, compared to Kasaï which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Democratic Republic of the Congo which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Mweka's incremental SNDi fell from 3.01 to 2.16 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Mweka ranked 2nd out of 10 cities in Kasaï and 69th 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?

• Baraiyarhat, Bangladesh
• Zonguldak, Turkey
• Jintang, China
• Abua, Nigeria
• Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir
• Santarém, Brazil

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