Biratnagar in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Biratnagar in context

2.83.54.24.9<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.83.54.24.9<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BiratnagarEast (Region)Nepal (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Biratnagar plotted against East and Nepal. The SNDi of new construction in Biratnagar followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to East which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Nepal which rose steadily. Most recently, Biratnagar's incremental SNDi rose from 3.76 to 4.75 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Biratnagar ranked 3rd out of 4 cities in East and 13th out of 22 in Nepal as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.75
Rank in Nepal
14th of 22
Rank in East
2nd of 4

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.88
Rank in Nepal
13th of 22
Rank in East
3rd of 4

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

What about similarly populated cities?

3.244.85.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3.244.85.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BiratnagarGujratIpoh

In new street additions, Biratnagar and Ipoh both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Gujrat built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Notably, Biratnagar had a more connected network than Ipoh in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.