Ambaji 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 Ambaji plotted against Gujarat and India. The SNDi of new construction in Ambaji was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Gujarat which rose steadily and India which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Ambaji's incremental SNDi rose from 5.03 to 6.79 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Ambaji ranked 79th out of 92 cities in Gujarat and 1496th 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?

• Antetezambaro, Madagascar
• Chhatrapur, India
• Vihiga, Kenya
• Samalkha, India
• Kitami, Japan
• Agua Prieta, México

In new street additions, Ambaji built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Antetezambaro built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Samalkha fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Ambaji became progressively more connected, while Antetezambaro grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Samalkha fluctuated in connectivity. Notably, Ambaji had a more sprawly network than Antetezambaro in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.