Lashkar Gah in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Lashkar Gah in context

2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Lashkar GahHilmand (Region)Afghanistan (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Lashkar Gah plotted against Hilmand and Afghanistan. The SNDi of new construction in Lashkar Gah peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Hilmand which peaked in 1976-1990 and Afghanistan which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Lashkar Gah's incremental SNDi fell from 2.28 to 1.9 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Lashkar Gah ranked 2nd out of 2 cities in Hilmand and 12th out of 73 in Afghanistan as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
1.9
Rank in Afghanistan
6th of 73
Rank in Hilmand
1st of 2

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.57
Rank in Afghanistan
12th of 73
Rank in Hilmand
2nd of 2

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

What about similarly populated cities?

1.82.73.64.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.82.73.64.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Lashkar GahHalolLijiang

In new street additions, Lashkar Gah built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Halol fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Lijiang built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. For the full network, Lashkar Gah grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Halol fluctuated in connectivity and Lijiang grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Notably, Lashkar Gah had a more sprawly network than Lijiang in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.