Keren 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 Keren plotted against Anseba and Eritrea. The SNDi of new construction in Keren rose steadily, compared to Anseba which rose steadily and Eritrea which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Keren's incremental SNDi rose from 3.44 to 4.11 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Keren ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Anseba and 5th out of 8 in Eritrea as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Vigo, Spain
• Ya'an, China
• Gaoyou, China
• Sakarya, Turkey
• Jianhu, China
• Wakayama, Japan

While Vigo and Sakarya both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, Keren built increasingly disconnected streets over time in new street additions. Looking at the full network, Vigo and Sakarya both grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Keren became progressively more disconnected. Keren and Sakarya have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.