Kabalo 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 Kabalo plotted against Tanganyika and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Kabalo was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Tanganyika which peaked in 1991-2005 and Democratic Republic of the Congo which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Kabalo's incremental SNDi rose from 2.32 to 2.49 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Kabalo ranked 2nd out of 10 cities in Tanganyika and 39th 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?

• Jaggayyapeta, India
• Ruyang County, China
• Shevgaon, India
• Panglong, Myanmar
• Florence, United States
• Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania

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