Ashkelon 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 Ashkelon plotted against HaDarom and Israel. The SNDi of new construction in Ashkelon followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to HaDarom which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Israel which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Ashkelon's incremental SNDi rose from 2.47 to 3.35 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Ashkelon ranked 3rd out of 3 cities in HaDarom and 4th out of 22 in Israel as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Tanchon, North Korea
• Tân Phú, Vietnam
• Shuangfeng, China
• Biruaca, Venezuela
• Hisor, Tajikistan
• Aalborg, Denmark

In new street additions, Ashkelon fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Tanchon built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Biruaca built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Ashkelon fluctuated in connectivity, while Tanchon grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Biruaca became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Ashkelon and Biruaca have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.