Nasiriyah in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Nasiriyah in context

2.42.83.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.42.83.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
NasiriyahDhi-Qar (Region)Iraq (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Nasiriyah plotted against Dhi-Qar and Iraq. The SNDi of new construction in Nasiriyah fell steadily, compared to Dhi-Qar which fell steadily and Iraq which peaked in 1976-1990. Most recently, Nasiriyah's incremental SNDi fell from 2.3 to 2.19 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Nasiriyah ranked 5th out of 8 cities in Dhi-Qar and 31st out of 86 in Iraq as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.19
Rank in Iraq
22nd of 86
Rank in Dhi-Qar
6th of 8

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.39
Rank in Iraq
31st of 86
Rank in Dhi-Qar
5th of 8

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.73.64.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.73.64.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
NasiriyahZagrebAbeokuta

In new street additions, Nasiriyah built increasingly connected streets over time, while Zagreb built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Abeokuta built increasingly disconnected streets over time. Looking at the full network, Zagreb and Abeokuta both became progressively more disconnected, while Nasiriyah became progressively more connected. Notably, Nasiriyah had a more sprawly network than Zagreb in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.