Pauakhali 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 Pauakhali plotted against Bihar and India. The SNDi of new construction in Pauakhali was at its lowest in 1991-2005, 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, Pauakhali's incremental SNDi rose from 5.2 to 8.34 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Pauakhali ranked 228th out of 264 cities in Bihar and 1679th 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?

• Kungyangon, Myanmar
• Nirsa, India
• Taunton, United Kingdom
• Shigatse, China
• Demebecha, Ethiopia
• Kyauktaga, Myanmar

In new street additions, Pauakhali built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Kungyangon built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Shigatse built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Pauakhali became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards, while Kungyangon became progressively more disconnected and Shigatse grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Pauakhali and Kungyangon have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.