Walikale 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 Walikale plotted against Nord-Kivu and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Walikale fell 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, Walikale's incremental SNDi fell from 6.79 to 6.76 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Walikale ranked 15th out of 16 cities in Nord-Kivu and 181st 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?

• Jalgaon Jamod, India
• Chakia, India
• Kladno, Czechia
• Norristown, United States
• Hongya, China
• An Numaniyah, Iraq

While Jalgaon Jamod and Norristown both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, Walikale built increasingly connected streets over time in new street additions. Looking at the full network, Jalgaon Jamod and Norristown both became progressively more disconnected, while Walikale became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards.