Nchelenge 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 Nchelenge plotted against Luapula and Zambia. The SNDi of new construction in Nchelenge followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to Luapula which was at its lowest in 1976-1990 and Zambia which rose steadily. Most recently, Nchelenge's incremental SNDi rose from 2.93 to 4.44 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Nchelenge ranked 1st out of 2 cities in Luapula and 19th out of 30 in Zambia as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Vlora, Albania
• Legnica, Poland
• Macherla, India
• Ramachandrapuram, India
• Ras Laffan, Qatar
• Holeta Genet, Ethiopia

In new street additions, Nchelenge and Ramachandrapuram both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Vlora built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Notably, Nchelenge had a more sprawly network than Ramachandrapuram in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.