Misrata 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 Misrata plotted against Misratah and Libya. The SNDi of new construction in Misrata peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Misratah which rose steadily and Libya which peaked in 1976-1990. Most recently, Misrata's incremental SNDi fell from 4.17 to 3.97 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Misrata ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Misratah and 8th out of 13 in Libya as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Reading, United Kingdom
• Linxia, China
• Xiangcheng, China
• Mwene-Ditu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Ipatinga, Brazil
• Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir

In new street additions, Misrata built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Reading built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Mwene-Ditu built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Misrata and Mwene-Ditu both became progressively more disconnected, while Reading grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Misrata and Reading have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.