Skardu 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 Skardu plotted against Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Skardu's incremental SNDi rose from 3.16 to 4.25 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Skardu ranked 1st out of 2 cities in Gilgit-Baltistan and 1st out of 6 in Azad Kashmir as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Đồng Xoài, Vietnam
• Igbeti, Nigeria
• Ponggok, Indonesia
• Francistown, Botswana
• Lubutu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Sarai Mir, India

In new street additions, Đồng Xoài and Francistown both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Skardu built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. Looking at the full network, Đồng Xoài and Francistown both became progressively more disconnected, while Skardu became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Notably, Skardu had a more sprawly network than Đồng Xoài in 1975, but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.