Walungu 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 Walungu plotted against Sud-Kivu and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Walungu 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, Walungu's incremental SNDi rose from 3.43 to 4.89 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Walungu ranked 3rd out of 12 cities in Sud-Kivu and 102nd 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?

• Tilili, Ethiopia
• Torbalı, Turkey
• Shangsi County, China
• Minqin, China
• Mahwa, India
• Nabarangapur, India

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