Bhatkal 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 Bhatkal plotted against Karnataka and India. The SNDi of new construction in Bhatkal rose steadily, compared to Karnataka which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and India which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Bhatkal's incremental SNDi rose from 4.71 to 6.48 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Bhatkal ranked 78th out of 96 cities in Karnataka and 839th 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?

• El Vigía, Venezuela
• Unchahar, India
• Chengcheng, China
• Bihta, India
• North Lakes, Australia
• Eruwa, Nigeria

In new street additions, Bhatkal built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while El Vigía fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Bihta built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Bhatkal and El Vigía both became progressively more disconnected, while Bihta became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Bhatkal and Bihta have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.