Addis Ababa in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Addis Ababa in context

2.533.54<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.533.54<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Addis AbabaAddis Abeba (Region)Ethiopia (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Addis Ababa plotted against Addis Abeba and Ethiopia. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Addis Ababa's incremental SNDi rose from 2.81 to 3.19 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Addis Ababa ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Addis Abeba and 123rd out of 181 in Ethiopia as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.19
Rank in Ethiopia
83rd of 181
Rank in Addis Abeba
1st of 1

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.95
Rank in Ethiopia
123rd of 181
Rank in Addis Abeba
1st of 1

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

What about similarly populated cities?

34567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
34567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Addis AbabaKozhikodeZhengzhou

In new street additions, Addis Ababa fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Kozhikode built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Zhengzhou built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Addis Ababa fluctuated in connectivity, while Kozhikode became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards and Zhengzhou grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Addis Ababa and Zhengzhou have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.