Mek'elē 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 Mek'elē plotted against Tigray and Ethiopia. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Mek'elē's incremental SNDi rose from 2.17 to 3.6 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Mek'elē ranked 8th out of 12 cities in Tigray and 79th 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?

• Point Cook, Australia
• Wardha, India
• Spokane, United States
• Nautan, India
• Suihua, China
• Isesaki, Japan

In new street additions, Mek'elē fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Point Cook fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Nautan built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Mek'elē became progressively more disconnected, while Point Cook fluctuated in connectivity and Nautan became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Mek'elē and Point Cook have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.