Cape Coast in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Cape Coast in context

3.64.55.46.3<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3.64.55.46.3<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Cape CoastCentral (Region)Ghana (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Cape Coast plotted against Central and Ghana. The SNDi of new construction in Cape Coast rose steadily, compared to Central which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Ghana which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Cape Coast's incremental SNDi rose from 5.86 to 6.24 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Cape Coast ranked 6th out of 7 cities in Central and 46th out of 53 in Ghana as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
6.24
Rank in Ghana
46th of 53
Rank in Central
5th of 7

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
4.98
Rank in Ghana
46th of 53
Rank in Central
6th of 7

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

What about similarly populated cities?

23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Cape CoastMossoroKochi

While Mossoró and Kochi both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, Cape Coast built increasingly disconnected streets over time in new street additions. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Cape Coast and Kochi have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.