Beirut in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Beirut in context

468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BeirutMount Lebanon (Region)Lebanon (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Beirut plotted against Mount Lebanon and Lebanon. While Mount Lebanon and Lebanon both rose steadily, Beirut's new street additions rose steadily. Most recently, Beirut's incremental SNDi rose from 5.53 to 6.21 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Beirut ranked 1st out of 2 cities in Mount Lebanon and 4th out of 8 in Lebanon as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
6.21
Rank in Lebanon
7th of 8
Rank in Mount Lebanon
1st of 2

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.75
Rank in Lebanon
4th of 8
Rank in Mount Lebanon
1st of 2

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

What about similarly populated cities?

23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BeirutSan DiegoLa Paz

In new street additions, Beirut built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while San Diego built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and La Paz fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Beirut and San Diego both became progressively more disconnected, while La Paz grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. Beirut and San Diego have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.