Arochukwu 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 Arochukwu plotted against Abia and Nigeria. The SNDi of new construction in Arochukwu peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Abia which rose steadily and Nigeria which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Arochukwu's incremental SNDi fell from 6.51 to 5.78 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Arochukwu ranked 8th out of 9 cities in Abia and 354th out of 422 in Nigeria as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Mwadingusha, Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Kabba, Nigeria
• Ilaro, Nigeria
• Churu, India
• Yuyue, China
• Al Jahra, Kuwait

In new street additions, Arochukwu and Mwadingusha both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Churu fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Arochukwu and Churu both became progressively more disconnected, while Mwadingusha grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Notably, Arochukwu had a more sprawly network than Mwadingusha in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.