Kumbakonam 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 Kumbakonam plotted against Tamil Nadu and India. The SNDi of new construction in Kumbakonam was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Tamil Nadu which rose steadily and India which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Kumbakonam's incremental SNDi rose from 3.82 to 4.86 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Kumbakonam ranked 80th out of 121 cities in Tamil Nadu and 1092nd 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?

• Bhiwadi, India
• Chuxiong, China
• Macapá, Brazil
• Ivanovo, Russia
• Deoghar, India
• Santa Marta, Colombia

While Bhiwadi and Ivanovo both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, Kumbakonam built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns in new street additions. For the full network, Kumbakonam became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards, while Bhiwadi fluctuated in connectivity and Ivanovo became progressively more disconnected. Kumbakonam and Bhiwadi have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.