Cumbum 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 Cumbum plotted against Tamil Nadu and India. While Tamil Nadu and India both followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, Cumbum's new street additions followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Cumbum's incremental SNDi rose from 2.13 to 15.59 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Cumbum ranked 120th out of 121 cities in Tamil Nadu and 1800th 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?

• Reggio nell'Emilia, Italy
• Paradise Hills, United States
• Katoro, Tanzania
• Kom Hamada, Egypt
• Kottarakkara, India
• Solwezi, Zambia

In new street additions, Cumbum fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Reggio nell'Emilia built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Kom Hamada built increasingly disconnected streets over time. Looking at the full network, Reggio nell'Emilia and Kom Hamada both became progressively more disconnected, while Cumbum fluctuated in connectivity. Cumbum and Reggio nell'Emilia have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.