Manila 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 Manila plotted against Bulacan and Philippines. The SNDi of new construction in Manila followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to Bulacan which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Philippines which rose steadily. Most recently, Manila's incremental SNDi rose from 5.78 to 6.05 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Manila ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Bulacan and 92nd out of 114 in Philippines as of 2020.

Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.

What about similarly populated cities?

• Shanghai, China
• New Delhi, India
• Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Kolkata, India
• Seoul, South Korea
• Cairo, Egypt

In new street additions, Manila and Kolkata both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Shanghai built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Manila and Kolkata have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.