Mbanza-Ngungu 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 Mbanza-Ngungu plotted against Kongo-Central and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Mbanza-Ngungu rose steadily, compared to Kongo-Central which rose steadily and Democratic Republic of the Congo which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Mbanza-Ngungu's incremental SNDi rose from 3.16 to 3.69 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Mbanza-Ngungu ranked 5th out of 15 cities in Kongo-Central and 92nd 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?

• Mongbwalu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Taihe, China
• Abadan, Iran
• Taungoo, Myanmar
• Kulaura, Bangladesh
• Havelian Cantonment, Pakistan

In new street additions, Mbanza-Ngungu and Taungoo both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Mongbwalu built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Mbanza-Ngungu and Taungoo both became progressively more disconnected, while Mongbwalu became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Mbanza-Ngungu and Mongbwalu have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.