Al Khafji 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 Al Khafji plotted against Ash-Sharqīyah and Saudi Arabia. The SNDi of new construction in Al Khafji was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Ash-Sharqīyah which rose steadily and Saudi Arabia which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Al Khafji's incremental SNDi rose from 2.37 to 2.57 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Al Khafji ranked 2nd out of 9 cities in Ash-Sharqīyah and 9th 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?

• Grand Goâve, Haiti
• Atlantis, South Africa
• Borazjan, Iran
• Pishin, Pakistan
• An Nabahinah, Yemen
• Ventura, United States

In new street additions, Al Khafji built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Grand Goâve built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Pishin built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Al Khafji became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards, while Grand Goâve became progressively more disconnected and Pishin grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Notably, Al Khafji had a more sprawly network than Grand Goâve in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.