Barlekha 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 Barlekha plotted against Sylhet and Bangladesh. While Sylhet and Bangladesh both followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, Barlekha's new street additions followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Barlekha's incremental SNDi rose from 8.54 to 11.81 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Barlekha ranked 19th out of 24 cities in Sylhet and 179th 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?

• Campbelltown, Australia
• Bheramara, Bangladesh
• Diancheng, China
• Siruguppa, India
• Wannian, China
• Bwera, Uganda

In new street additions, Barlekha fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Campbelltown built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Siruguppa built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Barlekha and Siruguppa both became progressively more disconnected, while Campbelltown grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Barlekha and Campbelltown have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.