Dingxi 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 Dingxi plotted against Gansu and China. The SNDi of new construction in Dingxi peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Gansu which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Dingxi's incremental SNDi fell from 3.95 to 2.97 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Dingxi ranked 15th out of 29 cities in Gansu and 1601st 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?

• Ordos, China
• Paramakkudi, India
• Varginha, Brazil
• Lourdes, El Salvador
• Villukuri, India
• Ninghe, China

In new street additions, Dingxi built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Ordos built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Lourdes built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Dingxi grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Ordos became progressively more connected and Lourdes became progressively more disconnected. Notably, Dingxi had a more sprawly network than Lourdes in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.