Areka 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 Areka plotted against Southern Nations, Nationalities and Ethiopia. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Areka's incremental SNDi rose from 2.58 to 5.43 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Areka ranked 30th out of 39 cities in Southern Nations, Nationalities and 125th out of 181 in Ethiopia as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Mihtarlam, Afghanistan
• Tagbilaran, Philippines
• Nagda, India
• Jinzhou, China
• Khenchela, Algeria
• Melitopol, Ukraine

In new street additions, Areka fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Mihtarlam built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Jinzhou built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. For the full network, Areka became progressively more disconnected, while Mihtarlam became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards and Jinzhou grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Notably, Areka had a more connected network than Jinzhou in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.