Mbala in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Mbala in context

1.62.43.24<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.62.43.24<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
MbalaNorthern (Region)Zambia (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Mbala plotted against Northern and Zambia. The SNDi of new construction in Mbala was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Northern which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Zambia which rose steadily. Most recently, Mbala's incremental SNDi rose from 1.87 to 2.98 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Mbala ranked 1st out of 3 cities in Northern and 1st out of 30 in Zambia as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.98
Rank in Zambia
13th of 30
Rank in Northern
1st of 3

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
1.82
Rank in Zambia
1st of 30
Rank in Northern
1st of 3

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
MbalaHoloTengrela

In new street additions, Mbala built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Holo built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Tengréla built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Looking at the full network, Holo and Tengréla both became progressively more disconnected, while Mbala became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Mbala and Holo have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.