Rutshuru 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 Rutshuru plotted against Nord-Kivu and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Rutshuru rose steadily, compared to Nord-Kivu 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, Rutshuru's incremental SNDi rose from 3.14 to 6.83 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Rutshuru ranked 4th out of 16 cities in Nord-Kivu and 59th 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?

• Balneário Camboriú, Brazil
• Wanlaweyn, Somalia
• Udaipur, India
• Chengarchar, Bangladesh
• Zhongxiang, China
• Sonsonate, El Salvador

In new street additions, Rutshuru and Balneário Camboriú both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Chengarchar built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend.