Balqaş in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Balqas in context

1.62.43.24<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.62.43.24<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BalqasQaraghandy (Region)Kazakhstan (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Balqaş plotted against Qaraghandy and Kazakhstan. The SNDi of new construction in Balqaş was at its lowest in 1991-2005, compared to Qaraghandy which peaked in 1976-1990 and Kazakhstan which rose steadily. Most recently, Balqaş's incremental SNDi rose from 1.23 to 1.39 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Balqaş ranked 1st out of 5 cities in Qaraghandy and 1st out of 32 in Kazakhstan as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
1.39
Rank in Kazakhstan
2nd of 32
Rank in Qaraghandy
2nd of 5

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
1.53
Rank in Kazakhstan
1st of 32
Rank in Qaraghandy
1st of 5

Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.

What about similarly populated cities?

1.522.53<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.522.53<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BalqasCiudad HidalgoQiubei

In new street additions, Balqaş built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Ciudad Hidalgo fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Qiubei built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. For the full network, Balqaş became progressively more connected, while Ciudad Hidalgo fluctuated in connectivity and Qiubei grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Notably, Balqaş had a more sprawly network than Ciudad Hidalgo in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.