Mafuo 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 Mafuo plotted against Sud-Kivu and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Mafuo was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Sud-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, Mafuo's incremental SNDi rose from 4.0 to 6.21 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Mafuo ranked 9th out of 12 cities in Sud-Kivu and 164th 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?

• Reus, Spain
• Daishan County, China
• Semnan, Iran
• Ioannina, Greece
• Assis, Brazil
• Ngodo, Nigeria

In new street additions, Mafuo built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Reus fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Ioannina built increasingly disconnected streets over time. Looking at the full network, Reus and Ioannina both became progressively more disconnected, while Mafuo became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Mafuo and Reus have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.