Swords 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 Swords plotted against Dublin and Ireland. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Swords's incremental SNDi fell from 5.79 to 5.1 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Swords ranked 2nd out of 3 cities in Dublin and 4th out of 5 in Ireland as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Francisco Beltrão, Brazil
• Yuanqiao, China
• Mechelen, Belgium
• Madaba, Egypt
• Heyang, China
• Alessandria, Italy

In new street additions, Swords built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Francisco Beltrão built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Madaba built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Swords grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Francisco Beltrão became progressively more disconnected and Madaba became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards.