Shorsh 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 Shorsh plotted against As-Sulaymaniyah and Iraq. The SNDi of new construction in Shorsh peaked in 1991-2005, compared to As-Sulaymaniyah which peaked in 1976-1990 and Iraq which peaked in 1976-1990. Most recently, Shorsh's incremental SNDi fell from 2.1 to 2.1 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Shorsh ranked 4th out of 6 cities in As-Sulaymaniyah and 15th out of 86 in Iraq as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Duyun, China
• Pukou, China
• Perinthalmanna, India
• Pescara, Italy
• Obuasi, Ghana
• Popayán, Colombia

In new street additions, Shorsh built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Duyun built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Pescara built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Shorsh and Pescara both became progressively more disconnected, while Duyun grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Notably, Shorsh had a more sprawly network than Duyun in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.