Ciudad Arce 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 Ciudad Arce plotted against La Libertad and El Salvador. The SNDi of new construction in Ciudad Arce followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to La Libertad which rose steadily and El Salvador which rose steadily. Most recently, Ciudad Arce's incremental SNDi rose from 5.31 to 5.97 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Ciudad Arce ranked 2nd out of 3 cities in La Libertad and 10th out of 12 in El Salvador as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Ezakheni, South Africa
• Sihecun, China
• Shepo, China
• Xinshi, China
• Colonia Santa Teresa, México
• Orerokpe, Nigeria

In new street additions, Ciudad Arce fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Ezakheni built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Xinshi built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Ciudad Arce and Ezakheni both became progressively more disconnected, while Xinshi grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Ciudad Arce and Ezakheni have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.