Rafha in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Rafha in context

1.42.12.83.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.42.12.83.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
RafhaAl Hudud ash Shamaliyah (Region)Saudi Arabia (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Rafha plotted against Al Hudud ash Shamaliyah and Saudi Arabia. The SNDi of new construction in Rafha rose steadily, compared to Al Hudud ash Shamaliyah which was at its lowest in 1991-2005 and Saudi Arabia which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Rafha's incremental SNDi rose from 1.69 to 1.75 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Rafha ranked 1st out of 2 cities in Al Hudud ash Shamaliyah and 1st out of 44 in Saudi Arabia as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
1.75
Rank in Saudi Arabia
1st of 44
Rank in Al Hudud ash Shamaliyah
1st of 2

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
1.65
Rank in Saudi Arabia
1st of 44
Rank in Al Hudud ash Shamaliyah
1st of 2

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

What about similarly populated cities?

12345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
12345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
RafhaAtmakurLingchuan

In new street additions, Rafha built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Atmakur built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Lingchuan fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Rafha became progressively more disconnected, while Atmakur became progressively more connected and Lingchuan fluctuated in connectivity. Rafha and Atmakur have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.