Xuancheng 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 Xuancheng plotted against Anhui and China. The SNDi of new construction in Xuancheng was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Anhui which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Xuancheng's incremental SNDi rose from 4.05 to 4.86 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Xuancheng ranked 66th out of 74 cities in Anhui and 1588th out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Ulanqab, China
• Centurion, South Africa
• Karur, India
• Myeik, Myanmar
• Tundla, India
• Kaiping, China

In new street additions, Xuancheng built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Ulanqab built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Myeik built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Xuancheng became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards, while Ulanqab grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Myeik became progressively more disconnected. Notably, Xuancheng had a more connected network than Ulanqab in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.