Meishan 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 Meishan plotted against Fujian and China. The SNDi of new construction in Meishan was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Fujian which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Meishan's incremental SNDi rose from 4.92 to 7.14 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Meishan ranked 68th out of 75 cities in Fujian as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Pindi Bhattian, Pakistan
• Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir
• Ceuta, Spain
• Achinsk, Russia
• Erenhot, China
• Goh, India

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