Kahama 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 Kahama plotted against Shinyanga and Tanzania. While Shinyanga and Tanzania both was at its lowest in 1976-1990, Kahama's new street additions was at its lowest in 1976-1990. Most recently, Kahama's incremental SNDi rose from 1.74 to 1.99 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Kahama ranked 1st out of 2 cities in Shinyanga and 5th out of 45 in Tanzania as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Los Ángeles, Chile
• Xiushui, China
• Hubli, India
• Lanshan, China
• Fazenda Parque Recreio, Brazil
• Virudhachalam, India

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