Vaikom 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 Vaikom plotted against Kerala and India. The SNDi of new construction in Vaikom 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, Vaikom's incremental SNDi rose from 4.16 to 5.91 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Vaikom ranked 12th out of 48 cities in Kerala and 1271st 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?

• Juwana, Indonesia
• Berbera, Somalia
• Zhukovsky, Russia
• Wenshang, China
• Shahr-e Kord, Iran
• Passos, Brazil

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