Guayaquil in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Guayaquil 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
GuayaquilGuayas (Region)Ecuador (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Guayaquil plotted against Guayas and Ecuador. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Guayaquil's incremental SNDi rose from 2.78 to 2.81 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Guayaquil ranked 3rd out of 4 cities in Guayas and 17th out of 34 in Ecuador as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.81
Rank in Ecuador
16th of 34
Rank in Guayas
2nd of 4

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.47
Rank in Ecuador
17th of 34
Rank in Guayas
3rd of 4

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

What about similarly populated cities?

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
GuayaquilKyivYogyakarta

In new street additions, Kyiv and Yogyakarta both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Guayaquil fluctuated in street-construction patterns. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Notably, Guayaquil had a more sprawly network than Kyiv in 1975, but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.