Wa 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 Wa plotted against Upper West and Ghana. The SNDi of new construction in Wa peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Upper West which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Ghana which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Wa's incremental SNDi fell from 2.31 to 2.19 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Wa ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Upper West and 7th out of 53 in Ghana as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Thayarwady, Myanmar
• Minhou, China
• Malanville, Benin
• Mojiang Hani Autonomous County, China
• Sidiangkat, Indonesia
• Ermelo, South Africa

While Thayarwady and Mojiang Hani Autonomous County both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, Wa built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved in new street additions. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Wa and Mojiang Hani Autonomous County have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.