Al Dhahir 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 Al Dhahir plotted against Abu Dhabi and United Arab Emirates. The SNDi of new construction in Al Dhahir was at its lowest in 1991-2005, compared to Abu Dhabi which peaked in 1991-2005 and United Arab Emirates which rose steadily. Most recently, Al Dhahir's incremental SNDi rose from 1.81 to 1.94 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Al Dhahir ranked 2nd out of 9 cities in Abu Dhabi and 4th out of 15 in United Arab Emirates as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Jumba la Mtwana, Kenya
• Yên Định, Vietnam
• Focșani, Romania
• Unguwar Mahaukci, Nigeria
• Shexian, China
• Balichak, India

In new street additions, Al Dhahir built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Jumba la Mtwana built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Unguwar Mahaukci fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Al Dhahir became progressively more connected, while Jumba la Mtwana became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards and Unguwar Mahaukci became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Notably, Al Dhahir had a more connected network than Unguwar Mahaukci in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.