Kathmandu in context: Street-network sprawl trends
Kathmandu in context
The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Kathmandu plotted against Central and Nepal. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Kathmandu's incremental SNDi rose from 4.49 to 5.32 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Kathmandu ranked 6th out of 8 cities in Central and 15th out of 22 in Nepal as of 2020.
New Street Additions (2006–2020)
- SNDi value
- 5.32
- Rank in Nepal
- 18th of 22
- Rank in Central
- 7th of 8
Entire Network (Aggregate)
- SNDi value
- 4.19
- Rank in Nepal
- 15th of 22
- Rank in Central
- 6th of 8
Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.
What about similarly populated cities?
- Patna, India
- Kasaï-Oriental, Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Durban, South Africa
- Owerri, Nigeria
- Algiers, Algeria
- Fuzhou, China
Kathmandu, Patna, and Owerri all built increasingly disconnected streets over time in new street construction. The same pattern holds for the full street network. Kathmandu and Patna have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.