Barcelona in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Barcelona in context

1.522.53<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.522.53<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BarcelonaCataluna (Region)Spain (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Barcelona plotted against Cataluña and Spain. The SNDi of new construction in Barcelona followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to Cataluña which rose steadily and Spain which peaked in 1976-1990. Most recently, Barcelona's incremental SNDi rose from 2.47 to 2.8 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Barcelona ranked 8th out of 15 cities in Cataluña and 34th out of 85 in Spain as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.8
Rank in Spain
61st of 85
Rank in Cataluña
10th of 15

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
1.79
Rank in Spain
34th of 85
Rank in Cataluña
8th of 15

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

What about similarly populated cities?

1.82.433.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.82.433.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BarcelonaTaiyuanQuanzhou

In new street additions, Barcelona and Quanzhou both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Taiyuan built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. For the full network, Barcelona and Quanzhou both became progressively more disconnected, while Taiyuan grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Barcelona and Quanzhou have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.