Barcelona in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Barcelona 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
BarcelonaAnzoategui (Region)Venezuela (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Barcelona plotted against Anzoátegui and Venezuela. The SNDi of new construction in Barcelona rose steadily, compared to Anzoátegui which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Venezuela which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Barcelona's incremental SNDi rose from 4.66 to 4.85 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Barcelona ranked 4th out of 4 cities in Anzoátegui and 40th out of 70 in Venezuela as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.85
Rank in Venezuela
37th of 70
Rank in Anzoátegui
4th of 4

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.76
Rank in Venezuela
40th of 70
Rank in Anzoátegui
4th of 4

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

What about similarly populated cities?

3.244.85.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3.244.85.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BarcelonaIkoroduAgartala

Barcelona, Ikorodu, and Agartala all built increasingly disconnected streets over time in new street construction. The same pattern holds for the full street network. Notably, Barcelona had a more sprawly network than Agartala in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.