Melipilla 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 Melipilla plotted against Santiago Metropolitan and Chile. The SNDi of new construction in Melipilla peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Santiago Metropolitan which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Chile which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Melipilla's incremental SNDi fell from 2.87 to 2.74 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Melipilla ranked 1st out of 5 cities in Santiago Metropolitan and 8th out of 38 in Chile as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Düziçi, Turkey
• San Luis, México
• Nalagarh, India
• Tongjiang, China
• Santai, China
• Patahi, India

In new street additions, Melipilla built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Düziçi built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Tongjiang fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Melipilla and Tongjiang both became progressively more disconnected, while Düziçi became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Notably, Melipilla had a more connected network than Düziçi in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.