Bhola 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 Bhola plotted against Barisal and Bangladesh. While Barisal and Bangladesh both followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, Bhola's new street additions followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Bhola's incremental SNDi rose from 7.92 to 13.97 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Bhola ranked 13th out of 15 cities in Barisal and 211th out of 234 in Bangladesh as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Jaynagar Majilpur, India
• Thanjavur, India
• Cusco, Peru
• Vadakara, India
• Tianshui, China
• Burao, Somalia

In new street additions, Bhola fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Jaynagar Majilpur built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Vadakara built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Bhola fluctuated in connectivity, while Jaynagar Majilpur became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards and Vadakara became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Bhola and Jaynagar Majilpur have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.