Kabwe in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Kabwe in context

2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
KabweCentral (Region)Zambia (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Kabwe plotted against Central and Zambia. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Kabwe's incremental SNDi rose from 3.41 to 3.6 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Kabwe ranked 2nd out of 3 cities in Central and 17th out of 30 in Zambia as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.6
Rank in Zambia
15th of 30
Rank in Central
2nd of 3

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.53
Rank in Zambia
17th of 30
Rank in Central
2nd of 3

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.433.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.433.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
KabweQionglaiJiuquan

In new street additions, Kabwe built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Qionglai built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Jiuquan built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. For the full network, Kabwe and Jiuquan both became progressively more disconnected, while Qionglai became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards.