Payakumbuh 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 Payakumbuh plotted against Sumatera Barat and Indonesia. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Payakumbuh's incremental SNDi rose from 5.22 to 7.27 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Payakumbuh ranked 3rd out of 7 cities in Sumatera Barat and 175th out of 366 in Indonesia as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Gebre Guracha, Ethiopia
• Hawsh Isa, Egypt
• Dong'an, China
• Al Jubayl, Saudi Arabia
• Sagamu, Nigeria
• Ghatail, Bangladesh

In new street additions, Payakumbuh and Al Jubayl both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Gebre Guracha built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Payakumbuh and Al Jubayl both became progressively more disconnected, while Gebre Guracha became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Payakumbuh and Gebre Guracha have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.