The underground border in context: Street-network sprawl trends

The underground border in context

3.244.85.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3.244.85.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
The underground borderNinawa (Region)Iraq (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with The underground border plotted against Ninawa and Iraq. The SNDi of new construction in The underground border followed a zig-zag trend with an overall decrease, compared to Ninawa which peaked in 1991-2005 and Iraq which peaked in 1976-1990. Most recently, The underground border's incremental SNDi fell from 5.04 to 3.58 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, The underground border ranked 9th out of 12 cities in Ninawa and 81st out of 86 in Iraq as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.58
Rank in Iraq
72nd of 86
Rank in Ninawa
8th of 12

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
4.82
Rank in Iraq
81st of 86
Rank in Ninawa
9th of 12

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
The underground borderTindjiIkot Ide

In new street additions, The underground border and Ikot Ide both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Tindji built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, The underground border and Ikot Ide both became progressively more connected, while Tindji became progressively more disconnected. The underground border and Tindji have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.