Belsand 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 Belsand plotted against Bihar and India. The SNDi of new construction in Belsand followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, 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, Belsand's incremental SNDi fell from 5.69 to 5.36 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Belsand ranked 183rd out of 264 cities in Bihar and 1525th 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?

• Kyaikto, Myanmar
• Markapur, India
• Elgin, United States
• Luxi, China
• Al Aamerah, United Arab Emirates
• Yongning, China

While Kyaikto and Luxi both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, Belsand fluctuated in its street-construction patterns in new street additions. For the full network, Belsand became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards, while Kyaikto became progressively more disconnected and Luxi fluctuated in connectivity. Belsand and Kyaikto have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.