Jiuquan in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Jiuquan in context

3.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
JiuquanGansu (Region)China (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Jiuquan plotted against Gansu and China. The SNDi of new construction in Jiuquan peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Gansu which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Jiuquan's incremental SNDi fell from 3.15 to 3.1 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Jiuquan ranked 5th out of 29 cities in Gansu and 1040th out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.1
Rank in China
942nd of 1843
Rank in Gansu
8th of 29

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.01
Rank in China
1040th of 1843
Rank in Gansu
5th of 29

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
JiuquanKabweBhuj

In new street additions, Jiuquan built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Kabwe built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Bhuj fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Notably, Jiuquan had a more sprawly network than Bhuj in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.