Hamriya Free Zone in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Hamriya Free Zone in context

2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Hamriya Free ZoneSharjah (Region)United Arab Emirates (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Hamriya Free Zone plotted against Sharjah and United Arab Emirates. The SNDi of new construction in Hamriya Free Zone peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Sharjah which rose steadily and United Arab Emirates which rose steadily. Most recently, Hamriya Free Zone's incremental SNDi fell from 5.27 to 5.21 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Hamriya Free Zone ranked 3rd out of 3 cities in Sharjah and 15th out of 15 in United Arab Emirates as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
5.21
Rank in United Arab Emirates
15th of 15
Rank in Sharjah
3rd of 3

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
4.15
Rank in United Arab Emirates
15th of 15
Rank in Sharjah
3rd of 3

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

What about similarly populated cities?

45678<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
45678<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Hamriya Free ZoneEl AffrounLola

In new street additions, Hamriya Free Zone and El Affroun both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Lola built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Hamriya Free Zone and El Affroun have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.