Mbulula 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 Mbulula plotted against Tanganyika and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Mbulula followed a zig-zag trend with an overall decrease, 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, Mbulula's incremental SNDi fell from 6.18 to 1.92 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Mbulula ranked 4th out of 10 cities in Tanganyika and 67th 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?

• Kabala, Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Zarumilla, Peru
• Dabo, Indonesia
• Orlamish, Afghanistan
• Qingjiang, China
• Xinji, China

In new street additions, Mbulula fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Kabala built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Orlamish built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Mbulula fluctuated in connectivity, while Kabala became progressively more disconnected and Orlamish became progressively more connected. Notably, Mbulula had a more connected network than Orlamish in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.