Hunan 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 Hunan plotted against Fujian and China. The SNDi of new construction in Hunan was at its lowest in 1991-2005, compared to Fujian which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Hunan's incremental SNDi rose from 4.04 to 4.3 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Hunan ranked 61st out of 75 cities in Fujian and 1632nd 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?

• Langzhong, China
• সুখানপুকুর, Bangladesh
• Jagdishpur, India
• Armavir, Russia
• Ile Oluji, Nigeria
• Aleta Wendo, Ethiopia

In new street additions, Hunan built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Langzhong fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Armavir built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Hunan became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards, while Langzhong became progressively more disconnected and Armavir grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Hunan and Armavir have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.