Cairo in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Cairo in context

2.42.83.23.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.42.83.23.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
CairoAl Qahirah (Region)Egypt (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Cairo plotted against Al Qahirah and Egypt. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Cairo's incremental SNDi rose from 3.19 to 3.61 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Cairo ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Al Qahirah and 91st out of 213 in Egypt as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.61
Rank in Egypt
70th of 213
Rank in Al Qahirah
1st of 1

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.15
Rank in Egypt
91st of 213
Rank in Al Qahirah
1st of 1

Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.

What about similarly populated cities?

23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
CairoSeoulSao Paulo

In new street additions, Cairo and Seoul both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while São Paulo built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Cairo and São Paulo have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.