Mersa in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Mersa in context

234567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
234567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
MersaAmhara (Region)Ethiopia (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Mersa plotted against Amhara and Ethiopia. While Amhara and Ethiopia both followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, Mersa's new street additions followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Mersa's incremental SNDi rose from 2.29 to 6.81 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Mersa ranked 31st out of 41 cities in Amhara and 150th out of 181 in Ethiopia as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
6.81
Rank in Ethiopia
170th of 181
Rank in Amhara
37th of 41

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.48
Rank in Ethiopia
150th of 181
Rank in Amhara
31st of 41

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

What about similarly populated cities?

36912<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
36912<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
MersaKaryariGulin

In new street additions, Mersa fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Karyari fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Gulin built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Mersa fluctuated in connectivity, while Karyari fluctuated in connectivity and Gulin grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. Notably, Mersa had a more connected network than Gulin in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.