Lisbon in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Lisbon in context

2.83.23.64<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.83.23.64<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
LisbonLisboa (Region)Portugal (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Lisbon plotted against Lisboa and Portugal. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Lisbon's incremental SNDi rose from 3.5 to 3.6 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Lisbon ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Lisboa and 6th out of 9 in Portugal as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.6
Rank in Portugal
6th of 9
Rank in Lisboa
1st of 1

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.11
Rank in Portugal
6th of 9
Rank in Lisboa
1st of 1

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

What about similarly populated cities?

1.82.433.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.82.433.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
LisbonLubumbashiRabat

In new street additions, Lisbon and Rabat both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Lubumbashi built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Lisbon and Lubumbashi have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.