Configurational resilience in fragmented urban growth: the stabilizing role of pre-existing street networks

This study investigates how pre-existing configurational resilience in street networks shapes their response to fragmented urban growth. Using space syntax, added street networks varying in layout, relative size, and coupling location were connected to six network states from two Brazilian medium-sized cities. Configurational effects were assessed through changes in mean global integration, intelligibility, and a proposed Configurational Resilience Index (CRI), used as a bounded comparative device. Results suggest that higher initial resilience buffers integration changes, indicating a stabilizing role of pre-existing street-network structure, while intelligibility and CRI showed heterogeneous responses. Findings support exploring ‘ringiness reserves’ as an urban design principle.