Pabbi 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 Pabbi plotted against Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan. The SNDi of new construction in Pabbi 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, Pabbi's incremental SNDi rose from 5.95 to 6.81 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Pabbi ranked 36th out of 67 cities in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 248th 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?

• Dawu, China
• Daharki, Pakistan
• Tarn Taran Sahib, India
• Geita, Tanzania
• Shuikou, China
• Abudwak, Ethiopia

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