Az Zulfi 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 Az Zulfi plotted against Ar Riyad and Saudi Arabia. The SNDi of new construction in Az Zulfi peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Ar Riyad which rose steadily and Saudi Arabia which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Az Zulfi's incremental SNDi fell from 2.08 to 1.83 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Az Zulfi ranked 1st out of 7 cities in Ar Riyad and 2nd out of 44 in Saudi Arabia as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Abhom, Jammu and Kashmir
• Ibillo, Nigeria
• Dushanzi, China
• Gereida, Sudan
• Trimohini, India
• Lugazi, Uganda

While Abhom and Gereida both built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, Az Zulfi built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved in new street additions. For the full network, Az Zulfi grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Abhom became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards and Gereida became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Notably, Az Zulfi had a more connected network than Gereida in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.