Barentu 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 Barentu plotted against Gash Barka and Eritrea. The SNDi of new construction in Barentu was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Gash Barka which rose steadily and Eritrea which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Barentu's incremental SNDi rose from 2.75 to 3.94 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Barentu ranked 2nd out of 2 cities in Gash Barka and 8th 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?

• Al Qurayyat, Saudi Arabia
• Xixia, China
• Hitachinaka, Japan
• Khazan Gedid, Sudan
• Chinandega, Nicaragua
• Huaikou, China

In new street additions, Barentu built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Al Qurayyat built increasingly connected streets over time and Khazan Gedid built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Barentu became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards, while Al Qurayyat became progressively more connected and Khazan Gedid became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Notably, Barentu had a more connected network than Al Qurayyat in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.