Raqqa 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 Raqqa plotted against Ar Raqqah and Syria. The SNDi of new construction in Raqqa rose steadily, compared to Ar Raqqah which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Syria which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Raqqa's incremental SNDi rose from 3.78 to 4.16 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Raqqa ranked 1st out of 2 cities in Ar Raqqah and 14th out of 39 in Syria as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Dodoma, Tanzania
• Ash Sharai, Saudi Arabia
• Ambikapur, India
• Caoxian, China
• Shuangyashan, China
• Sampit, Indonesia

In new street additions, Raqqa built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Dodoma fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Caoxian built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Raqqa became progressively more disconnected, while Dodoma became progressively more connected and Caoxian grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. Raqqa and Dodoma have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.