Hala 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 Hala plotted against Sindh and Pakistan. The SNDi of new construction in Hala was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Sindh which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Pakistan which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Hala's incremental SNDi rose from 3.51 to 6.76 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Hala ranked 33rd out of 50 cities in Sindh and 120th 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?

• Jamasa, Egypt
• Krishnarajanagara, India
• Oyem, Gabon
• 峄城区, China
• Birnin Gwari, Nigeria
• Weichang, China

While Jamasa and 峄城区 both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Hala built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns in new street additions. Looking at the full network, Jamasa and 峄城区 both became progressively more disconnected, while Hala became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards.