Basra in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Basra in context

2.42.83.23.64<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.42.83.23.64<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BasraAl-Basrah (Region)Iraq (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Basra plotted against Al-Basrah and Iraq. The SNDi of new construction in Basra rose steadily, compared to Al-Basrah which rose steadily and Iraq which peaked in 1976-1990. Most recently, Basra's incremental SNDi rose from 3.54 to 3.9 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Basra ranked 3rd out of 5 cities in Al-Basrah and 65th out of 86 in Iraq as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.9
Rank in Iraq
77th of 86
Rank in Al-Basrah
5th of 5

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.99
Rank in Iraq
65th of 86
Rank in Al-Basrah
3rd of 5

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

What about similarly populated cities?

1.42.12.83.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.42.12.83.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BasraAligarhHamburg

In new street additions, Basra built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Aligarh fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Hamburg built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Basra and Aligarh have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.