Balakot 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 Balakot plotted against Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan. The SNDi of new construction in Balakot 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, Balakot's incremental SNDi rose from 7.42 to 10.28 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Balakot ranked 56th out of 67 cities in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 277th out of 292 in Pakistan as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Eslamabad-e Gharb, Iran
• Tral, Jammu and Kashmir
• Abaetetuba, Brazil
• Kollegal, India
• Er Roseires, Sudan
• Liaozhong, China

In new street additions, Balakot and Eslamabad-e Gharb both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Kollegal built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Balakot and Eslamabad-e Gharb both became progressively more disconnected, while Kollegal became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Balakot and Eslamabad-e Gharb have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.