Tshela 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 Tshela plotted against Kongo-Central and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Tshela 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, Tshela's incremental SNDi rose from 3.87 to 5.46 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Tshela ranked 7th out of 15 cities in Kongo-Central and 97th 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?

• Kusong, North Korea
• Hongtong, China
• Kuhdasht, Iran
• Utraula, India
• Montévrain, France
• Al Majar al Kabir, Iraq

In new street additions, Tshela built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Kusong fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Utraula built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Tshela became progressively more disconnected, while Kusong fluctuated in connectivity and Utraula became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards.