Swakopmund in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Swakopmund in context

2.12.42.73<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.12.42.73<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
SwakopmundErongo (Region)Namibia (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Swakopmund plotted against Erongo and Namibia. The SNDi of new construction in Swakopmund fell steadily, compared to Erongo which fell steadily and Namibia which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Swakopmund's incremental SNDi fell from 2.69 to 2.0 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Swakopmund ranked 2nd out of 2 cities in Erongo and 3rd out of 4 in Namibia as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.0
Rank in Namibia
1st of 4
Rank in Erongo
1st of 2

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.65
Rank in Namibia
3rd of 4
Rank in Erongo
2nd of 2

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

What about similarly populated cities?

369<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
369<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
SwakopmundHyangsanLa Calera

In new street additions, Swakopmund built increasingly connected streets over time, while Hyangsan fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and La Calera built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Looking at the full network, Hyangsan and La Calera both became progressively more disconnected, while Swakopmund became progressively more connected. Notably, Swakopmund had a more sprawly network than La Calera in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.