Abbottabad in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Abbottabad in context

3456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AbbottabadKhyber-Pakhtunkhwa (Region)Pakistan (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Abbottabad plotted against Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan. The SNDi of new construction in Abbottabad rose steadily, compared to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Pakistan which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Abbottabad's incremental SNDi rose from 3.51 to 5.51 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Abbottabad ranked 5th out of 67 cities in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 126th out of 292 in Pakistan as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
5.51
Rank in Pakistan
200th of 292
Rank in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
26th of 67

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.78
Rank in Pakistan
126th of 292
Rank in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
5th of 67

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AbbottabadAgadirColumbus

In new street additions, Abbottabad built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Agadir built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Columbus built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Abbottabad and Columbus both became progressively more disconnected, while Agadir grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Notably, Abbottabad had a more connected network than Columbus in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.