Birnin Gwari 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 Birnin Gwari plotted against Kaduna and Nigeria. The SNDi of new construction in Birnin Gwari was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Kaduna which rose steadily and Nigeria which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Birnin Gwari's incremental SNDi rose from 1.67 to 4.06 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Birnin Gwari ranked 6th out of 11 cities in Kaduna and 136th 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?

• 峄城区, China
• Hala, Pakistan
• Jamasa, Egypt
• Weichang, China
• Noorpur, India
• Zabid, Yemen

In new street additions, Birnin Gwari built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while 峄城区 built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Weichang built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Looking at the full network, 峄城区 and Weichang both became progressively more disconnected, while Birnin Gwari became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Birnin Gwari and 峄城区 have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.