Ballarat in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Ballarat in context

2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BallaratVictoria (Region)Australia (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Ballarat plotted against Victoria and Australia. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Ballarat's incremental SNDi fell from 3.92 to 3.73 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Ballarat ranked 1st out of 7 cities in Victoria and 3rd out of 35 in Australia as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.73
Rank in Australia
22nd of 35
Rank in Victoria
5th of 7

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.55
Rank in Australia
3rd of 35
Rank in Victoria
1st of 7

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

What about similarly populated cities?

23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BallaratSal'skBodrum

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