Upington in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Upington in context

2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
UpingtonNorthern Cape (Region)South Africa (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Upington plotted against Northern Cape and South Africa. The SNDi of new construction in Upington followed a zig-zag trend with an overall decrease, compared to Northern Cape which rose steadily and South Africa which rose steadily. Most recently, Upington's incremental SNDi rose from 2.58 to 2.65 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Upington ranked 2nd out of 2 cities in Northern Cape and 30th out of 81 in South Africa as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.65
Rank in South Africa
11th of 81
Rank in Northern Cape
1st of 2

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.99
Rank in South Africa
30th of 81
Rank in Northern Cape
2nd of 2

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

What about similarly populated cities?

23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
UpingtonDongargarhAgaie

In new street additions, Upington fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Dongargarh built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Agaie built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Upington grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Dongargarh became progressively more disconnected and Agaie became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Upington and Dongargarh have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.