Kahemba 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 Kahemba plotted against Kwango and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Kahemba rose steadily, compared to Kwango 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, Kahemba's incremental SNDi rose from 1.82 to 11.81 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Kahemba ranked 1st out of 3 cities in Kwango and 2nd 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?

• Port Blair, India
• Ambajogai, India
• Walton-on-Thames, United Kingdom
• Dundo, Angola
• Kahalgaon, India
• Lingshan, China

In new street additions, Kahemba built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Port Blair built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Dundo fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Kahemba and Port Blair both became progressively more disconnected, while Dundo became progressively more connected.