Nsioni 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 Nsioni plotted against Kongo-Central and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Nsioni was at its lowest in 1991-2005, 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, Nsioni's incremental SNDi rose from 1.15 to 2.99 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Nsioni ranked 2nd out of 15 cities in Kongo-Central and 24th 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?

• Pandharkawada, India
• Thohoyandou, South Africa
• Cicheng, China
• Phú Cường, Vietnam
• Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Poland
• Nookat, Kyrgyzstan

In new street additions, Nsioni and Phú Cường both built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Pandharkawada fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Nsioni and Phú Cường both became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards, while Pandharkawada fluctuated in connectivity. Nsioni and Pandharkawada have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.