Nuku'alofa 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 Nuku'alofa plotted against Tongatapu and Tonga. While Tongatapu and Tonga both followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, Nuku'alofa's new street additions followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Nuku'alofa's incremental SNDi rose from 2.91 to 6.63 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Nuku'alofa ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Tongatapu and 1st out of 1 in Tonga as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Tiberias, Israel
• La Lima, Honduras
• Sab al Bor, Iraq
• Kobakma, Indonesia
• Shalaambood, Somalia
• Lagunen, Norway

In new street additions, Nuku'alofa fluctuated in street-construction patterns, while Tiberias built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Kobakma built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Nuku'alofa fluctuated in connectivity, while Tiberias became progressively more disconnected and Kobakma became progressively more connected. Nuku'alofa and Tiberias have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.