Application of Fractal Analysis in Evaluation of Urban Road Networks in small sized city of India: Case city of Karimnagar

Abstract

Transport network structure affects the pattern of urban development and location of social, economic activities, household and employment centres in urban areas. It also affects accessibility and destination choice of travellers. Hence there is a need to evolve an approach for road network development policy for cities which takes into account inequity in road network supply and its impact on urban development through an interactive planning process to incrementally build road networks leading to a sustainable and equitable urban development pattern in the city. In this context fractal analysis offers an alternate approach for rational evaluation of road network system in urban areas.The present paper attempts to apply the concept of fractal analysis in evaluation of urban road networks for a small city Karimnagar city in the state of Telangana in South India. The study observed that there exists a good relation between the road network lengths and built-up area in the city and thereby using fractal analysis makes a case to rationally identify the requirements of incremental road network spatially taking into account the likely impact of road network augmentation on the development patterns. The paper concludes that fractal analysis is a great potential tool for road network evaluation including addressing the issue of inequity in supply of road networks within urban areas and it is very appropriate as an interactive planning tool to incrementally build road networks in urban situations particularly in developing environments where resources for such investments are scarce.