Ottapalam 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 Ottapalam plotted against Kerala and India. The SNDi of new construction in Ottapalam was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Kerala which was at its lowest in 1976-1990 and India which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Ottapalam's incremental SNDi rose from 6.49 to 8.69 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Ottapalam ranked 44th out of 48 cities in Kerala and 1714th 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?

• Ende, Indonesia
• Pskov, Russia
• Almere, Netherlands
• Yunyang, China
• Al Falah, United Arab Emirates
• Kielce, Poland

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