Punalur 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 Punalur plotted against Kerala and India. The SNDi of new construction in Punalur rose steadily, 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, Punalur's incremental SNDi rose from 5.14 to 6.98 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Punalur ranked 22nd out of 48 cities in Kerala and 1426th 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?

• Alibag, India
• Lincoln, United Kingdom
• Thana, Pakistan
• Kani, Japan
• Bangarapete, India
• Kowon, North Korea

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