Shahkot 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 Shahkot plotted against Punjab and Pakistan. The SNDi of new construction in Shahkot rose steadily, compared to Punjab which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Pakistan which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Shahkot's incremental SNDi rose from 4.12 to 4.73 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Shahkot ranked 84th out of 146 cities in Punjab and 142nd 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?

• Xinyang, China
• Bathinda, India
• Kushtia, Bangladesh
• Giridih, India
• Shivamogga, India
• Cincinnati, United States

In new street additions, Shahkot and Giridih both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Xinyang built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Shahkot and Giridih both became progressively more disconnected, while Xinyang became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Notably, Shahkot had a more connected network than Xinyang in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.