Shendam 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 Shendam plotted against Plateau and Nigeria. The SNDi of new construction in Shendam peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Plateau which rose steadily and Nigeria which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Shendam's incremental SNDi fell from 2.83 to 2.17 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Shendam ranked 3rd out of 8 cities in Plateau and 75th 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?

• Sverdlovsk, Ukraine
• Tavşanlı, Turkey
• Laï, Chad
• Jinxi, China
• Chiantla, Guatemala
• Roosendaal, Netherlands

In new street additions, Shendam built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Sverdlovsk built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Jinxi fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Shendam and Jinxi both became progressively more disconnected, while Sverdlovsk grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Notably, Shendam had a more sprawly network than Jinxi in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.