Ezakheni in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Ezakheni in context

34567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
34567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
EzakheniKwaZulu-Natal (Region)South Africa (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Ezakheni 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, Ezakheni's incremental SNDi rose from 3.91 to 4.88 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Ezakheni ranked 2nd out of 8 cities in KwaZulu-Natal and 50th out of 81 in South Africa as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.88
Rank in South Africa
62nd of 81
Rank in KwaZulu-Natal
3rd of 8

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.46
Rank in South Africa
50th of 81
Rank in KwaZulu-Natal
2nd of 8

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

What about similarly populated cities?

34567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
34567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
EzakheniSihecunCiudad Arce

In new street additions, Ezakheni built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Sihecun built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Ciudad Arce fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Ezakheni and Ciudad Arce both became progressively more disconnected, while Sihecun became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Notably, Ezakheni had a more connected network than Sihecun in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.