Paracatu 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 Paracatu plotted against Minas Gerais and Brazil. The SNDi of new construction in Paracatu was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Minas Gerais which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Brazil which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Paracatu's incremental SNDi rose from 2.08 to 2.75 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Paracatu ranked 20th out of 49 cities in Minas Gerais and 134th out of 365 in Brazil as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Bununu Dass, Nigeria
• Bebedouro, Brazil
• Dehua, China
• Madhugiri, India
• Arinodai, Japan
• Huoshan, China

In new street additions, Paracatu built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Bununu Dass built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Madhugiri built increasingly disconnected streets over time. Looking at the full network, Bununu Dass and Madhugiri both became progressively more disconnected, while Paracatu became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Notably, Paracatu had a more sprawly network than Bununu Dass in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.