Vadakara 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 Vadakara plotted against Kerala and India. The SNDi of new construction in Vadakara was at its lowest in 1991-2005, 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, Vadakara's incremental SNDi rose from 5.02 to 5.89 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Vadakara ranked 36th out of 48 cities in Kerala and 1627th 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?

• Bhola, Bangladesh
• Jaynagar Majilpur, India
• Thanjavur, India
• Tianshui, China
• Burao, Somalia
• Badaun, India

In new street additions, Vadakara built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Bhola fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Tianshui built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Vadakara became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards, while Bhola fluctuated in connectivity and Tianshui became progressively more disconnected. Vadakara and Bhola have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.