Kumta 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 Kumta plotted against Karnataka and India. The SNDi of new construction in Kumta 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, Kumta's incremental SNDi rose from 5.38 to 9.15 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Kumta ranked 94th out of 96 cities in Karnataka and 1668th 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?

• Torodi, Niger
• Marmaris, Turkey
• Lawrenceville, United States
• Zalingei, Sudan
• Keriya, China
• Saramabila, Democratic Republic of the Congo

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