Dakhla 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 Dakhla plotted against Oued el Dahab and Western Sahara. The SNDi of new construction in Dakhla peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Oued el Dahab which fell steadily and Western Sahara which was at its lowest in 1991-2005. Most recently, Dakhla's incremental SNDi fell from 1.34 to 1.24 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Dakhla ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Oued el Dahab and 2nd out of 2 in Western Sahara as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Likuni, Malawi
• Lahad Datu, Malaysia
• Bishwanath Charaili, India
• Botucatu, Brazil
• Hunyuan, China
• Port-Gentil, Gabon

In new street additions, Dakhla built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Likuni fluctuated in street-construction patterns and Botucatu built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Dakhla grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Likuni fluctuated in connectivity and Botucatu became progressively more disconnected. Dakhla and Botucatu have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.