Ihalav 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 Ihalav plotted against Benue and Nigeria. The SNDi of new construction in Ihalav was at its lowest in 1991-2005, compared to Benue which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Nigeria which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Ihalav's incremental SNDi rose from 3.55 to 4.34 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Ihalav ranked 13th out of 13 cities in Benue and 336th 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?

• Nagqu, China
• Zagora, Morocco
• Yatta, Palestine
• As Saddah, Yemen
• Afuze, Nigeria
• Nagahama, Japan

In new street additions, Ihalav built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Nagqu built increasingly disconnected streets over time and As Saddah fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Ihalav became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards, while Nagqu became progressively more disconnected and As Saddah grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. Notably, Ihalav had a more sprawly network than As Saddah in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.