Bhutan in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Bhutan in context

2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BhutanBihar (Region)India (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Bhutan plotted against Bihar and India. The SNDi of new construction in Bhutan followed a zig-zag trend with an overall decrease, 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, Bhutan's incremental SNDi fell from 5.08 to 2.17 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Bhutan ranked 28th out of 264 cities in Bihar and 533rd out of 1868 in India as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.17
Rank in India
125th of 1868
Rank in Bihar
13th of 264

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.12
Rank in India
533rd of 1868
Rank in Bihar
28th of 264

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BhutanBandar GanavehBinzhou

In new street additions, Bhutan fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Bandar Ganaveh fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Binzhou built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Bhutan fluctuated in connectivity, while Bandar Ganaveh fluctuated in connectivity and Binzhou grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. Notably, Bhutan had a more sprawly network than Binzhou in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.