Edinburgh in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Edinburgh in context

2.83.54.24.9<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.83.54.24.9<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
EdinburghScotland (Region)United Kingdom (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Edinburgh plotted against Scotland and United Kingdom. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Edinburgh's incremental SNDi fell from 3.83 to 2.77 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Edinburgh ranked 2nd out of 11 cities in Scotland and 5th out of 143 in United Kingdom as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.77
Rank in United Kingdom
10th of 143
Rank in Scotland
1st of 11

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.72
Rank in United Kingdom
5th of 143
Rank in Scotland
2nd of 11

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

What about similarly populated cities?

12345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
12345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
EdinburghCooch BeharAd Da'ein

In new street additions, Edinburgh built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Cooch Behar built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Ad Da'ein fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Notably, Edinburgh had a more sprawly network than Cooch Behar in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.