Rumbek 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 Rumbek plotted against Lakes and South Sudan. The SNDi of new construction in Rumbek was at its lowest in 1991-2005, compared to Lakes which fell steadily and South Sudan which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Rumbek's incremental SNDi rose from 1.27 to 1.35 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Rumbek ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Lakes and 3rd out of 16 in South Sudan as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Lianjiang, China
• Shenqiu, China
• Luena, Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Kotputli, India
• Jalesar, India
• Sangamner, India

In new street additions, Rumbek built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Lianjiang built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Kotputli built increasingly disconnected streets over time. Looking at the full network, Lianjiang and Kotputli both became progressively more disconnected, while Rumbek became progressively more connected. Notably, Rumbek had a more sprawly network than Lianjiang in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.