Gwagwalada 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 Gwagwalada plotted against Federal Capital Territory and Nigeria. The SNDi of new construction in Gwagwalada peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Federal Capital Territory which rose steadily and Nigeria which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Gwagwalada's incremental SNDi fell from 5.35 to 5.28 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Gwagwalada ranked 4th out of 7 cities in Federal Capital Territory and 382nd 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?

• Yudu, China
• Makiivka, Ukraine
• Yei, South Sudan
• Preston, United Kingdom
• Ramgarh, India
• Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria

In new street additions, Gwagwalada built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Yudu built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Preston fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Gwagwalada and Preston both became progressively more disconnected, while Yudu became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Gwagwalada and Yudu have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.