Riyadh in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Riyadh in context

2.42.83.23.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.42.83.23.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
RiyadhAr Riyad (Region)Saudi Arabia (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Riyadh plotted against Ar Riyad and Saudi Arabia. The SNDi of new construction in Riyadh rose steadily, compared to Ar Riyad which rose steadily and Saudi Arabia which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Riyadh's incremental SNDi rose from 3.3 to 3.56 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Riyadh ranked 5th out of 7 cities in Ar Riyad and 24th out of 44 in Saudi Arabia as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.56
Rank in Saudi Arabia
28th of 44
Rank in Ar Riyad
7th of 7

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.78
Rank in Saudi Arabia
24th of 44
Rank in Ar Riyad
5th of 7

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

What about similarly populated cities?

3456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
RiyadhNanjingPune

In new street additions, Riyadh and Pune both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Nanjing built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Riyadh and Nanjing have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.