Sha 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 Sha plotted against Fujian and China. The SNDi of new construction in Sha followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to Fujian which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Sha's incremental SNDi fell from 4.13 to 3.98 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Sha ranked 48th out of 75 cities in Fujian and 1454th 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?

• Kissidougou, Guinea
• Wutongqiao, China
• Jamshoro, Pakistan
• Ramanagara, India
• Jinhae-gu, South Korea
• Xiping, China

While Kissidougou and Ramanagara both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Sha fluctuated in its street-construction patterns in new street additions. Looking at the full network, Kissidougou and Ramanagara both became progressively more disconnected, while Sha became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Notably, Sha had a more sprawly network than Ramanagara in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.