Samba 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 Samba plotted against Maniema and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Samba was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Maniema 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, Samba's incremental SNDi rose from 2.42 to 3.49 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Samba ranked 2nd out of 9 cities in Maniema and 104th 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?

• Manori, India
• Kalchini, India
• Ribeirão das Neves, Brazil
• Pucheng, China
• Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain
• Dema, Russia

In new street additions, Samba built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Manori fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Pucheng built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Samba and Pucheng both became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards, while Manori became progressively more disconnected. Notably, Samba had a more sprawly network than Manori in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.