Bamian 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 Bamian plotted against Bamyan and Afghanistan. The SNDi of new construction in Bamian was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Bamyan which was at its lowest in 1991-2005 and Afghanistan which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Bamian's incremental SNDi rose from 4.34 to 4.52 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Bamian ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Bamyan and 42nd out of 73 in Afghanistan as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Bakhmut, Ukraine
• Ferkéssédougou, Côte d'Ivoire
• Coronel Oviedo, Paraguay
• Zliten, Libya
• Myan Aung, Myanmar
• Bhawaniganj, Bangladesh

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