Gumel 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 Gumel plotted against Jigawa and Nigeria. The SNDi of new construction in Gumel peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Jigawa which peaked in 1976-1990 and Nigeria which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Gumel's incremental SNDi fell from 2.17 to 1.96 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Gumel ranked 6th out of 11 cities in Jigawa and 53rd 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?

• Companyganj, Bangladesh
• Tepi, Ethiopia
• Yiliang, China
• Sindhanur, India
• Bakhri, India
• Girona, Spain

In new street additions, Gumel built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Companyganj built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Sindhanur fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Gumel became progressively more disconnected, while Companyganj became progressively more connected and Sindhanur fluctuated in connectivity. Gumel and Sindhanur have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.