Walvis Bay 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 Walvis Bay plotted against Erongo and Namibia. The SNDi of new construction in Walvis Bay was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Erongo which fell steadily and Namibia which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Walvis Bay's incremental SNDi rose from 2.3 to 3.23 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Walvis Bay ranked 1st out of 2 cities in Erongo and 2nd out of 4 in Namibia as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Sagbama, Nigeria
• Dadhapi, India
• Kraljevo, Serbia
• Sabanalarga, Colombia
• Kyauktan, Myanmar
• Wenago, Ethiopia

In new street additions, Walvis Bay and Sagbama both built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Sabanalarga fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Walvis Bay became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards, while Sagbama became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards and Sabanalarga became progressively more disconnected. Walvis Bay and Sabanalarga have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.