Dharwad 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 Dharwad plotted against Karnataka and India. The SNDi of new construction in Dharwad was at its lowest in 1976-1990, 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, Dharwad's incremental SNDi rose from 2.91 to 3.57 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Dharwad ranked 43rd out of 96 cities in Karnataka and 499th 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?

• Edmonton, Canada
• Mingora, Pakistan
• Ganzhou, China
• Qiqihar, China
• Serrekunda, Gambia
• Touba, Senegal

In new street additions, Dharwad built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Edmonton built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Qiqihar built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Looking at the full network, Edmonton and Qiqihar both became progressively more disconnected, while Dharwad became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Dharwad and Qiqihar have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.