Hefei in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Hefei in context

2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
HefeiAnhui (Region)China (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Hefei plotted against Anhui and China. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Hefei's incremental SNDi rose from 2.4 to 2.55 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Hefei ranked 29th out of 74 cities in Anhui and 492nd out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.55
Rank in China
546th of 1843
Rank in Anhui
34th of 74

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.37
Rank in China
492nd of 1843
Rank in Anhui
29th of 74

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
HefeiColombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte]Saint Petersburg

While Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] and Saint Petersburg both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Hefei fluctuated in its street-construction patterns in new street additions. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Hefei and Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.