Heraklion 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 Heraklion plotted against Crete and Greece. The SNDi of new construction in Heraklion was at its lowest in 1991-2005, compared to Crete which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall decrease and Greece which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Heraklion's incremental SNDi rose from 2.3 to 2.63 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Heraklion ranked 1st out of 2 cities in Crete and 6th out of 8 in Greece as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Dhenkanal, India
• Shenhu, China
• Phagwara, India
• Yiyuan, China
• Nankana Sahib, Pakistan
• Singkawang, Indonesia

In new street additions, Heraklion built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Dhenkanal built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Yiyuan fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. Looking at the full network, Dhenkanal and Yiyuan both became progressively more disconnected, while Heraklion became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Notably, Heraklion had a more sprawly network than Dhenkanal in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.