Al Fajr 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 Al Fajr plotted against Dhi-Qar and Iraq. While Dhi-Qar and Iraq both peaked in 1976-1990, Al Fajr's new street additions peaked in 1976-1990. Most recently, Al Fajr's incremental SNDi fell from 1.72 to 1.42 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Al Fajr ranked 1st out of 8 cities in Dhi-Qar and 12th 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?

• Dowlatabad, Afghanistan
• San José del Guaviare, Colombia
• Khanich, Iraq
• Binjiangzhen, China
• Ikotos, South Sudan
• Islam Qala, Afghanistan

While Dowlatabad and Binjiangzhen both built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, Al Fajr built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved in new street additions. For the full network, Al Fajr grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Dowlatabad became progressively more connected and Binjiangzhen became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Al Fajr and Binjiangzhen have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.