Al Ahsa in context: Street-network sprawl trends
Al Ahsa in context
The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Al Ahsa plotted against Ash-Sharqīyah and Saudi Arabia. The SNDi of new construction in Al Ahsa rose steadily, compared to Ash-Sharqīyah which rose steadily and Saudi Arabia which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Al Ahsa's incremental SNDi rose from 3.03 to 3.12 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Al Ahsa ranked 5th out of 9 cities in Ash-Sharqīyah and 20th out of 44 in Saudi Arabia as of 2020.
New Street Additions (2006–2020)
- SNDi value
- 3.12
- Rank in Saudi Arabia
- 23rd of 44
- Rank in Ash-Sharqīyah
- 5th of 9
Entire Network (Aggregate)
- SNDi value
- 2.59
- Rank in Saudi Arabia
- 20th of 44
- Rank in Ash-Sharqīyah
- 5th of 9
Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.
What about similarly populated cities?
In new street additions, Al Ahsa and Okene both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Kharameh built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Al Ahsa and Okene both became progressively more disconnected, while Kharameh became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Al Ahsa and Okene have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.