Balua 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 Balua plotted against Bihar and India. The SNDi of new construction in Balua rose steadily, compared to Bihar which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and India which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Balua's incremental SNDi rose from 4.93 to 5.55 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Balua ranked 186th out of 264 cities in Bihar and 1529th out of 1868 in India as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
• Blanchardstown, Ireland
• Nevşehir, Turkey
• Green Bay, United States
• Bento Gonçalves, Brazil
• Ligao, Philippines

In new street additions, Balua and Green Bay both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Stara Zagora built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Balua and Green Bay both became progressively more disconnected, while Stara Zagora became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Balua and Stara Zagora have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.