Durban in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Durban in context

468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
DurbanKwaZulu-Natal (Region)South Africa (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Durban plotted against KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Durban's incremental SNDi rose from 6.79 to 8.46 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Durban ranked 8th out of 8 cities in KwaZulu-Natal and 79th out of 81 in South Africa as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
8.46
Rank in South Africa
81st of 81
Rank in KwaZulu-Natal
8th of 8

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
5.63
Rank in South Africa
79th of 81
Rank in KwaZulu-Natal
8th of 8

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
DurbanNaplesKasai-Oriental

In new street additions, Durban and Kasaï-Oriental both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Naples built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Durban and Naples have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.