Tianshui 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 Tianshui plotted against Gansu and China. The SNDi of new construction in Tianshui was at its lowest 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, Tianshui's incremental SNDi rose from 6.13 to 6.2 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Tianshui ranked 22nd out of 29 cities in Gansu and 1740th 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?

• Vadakara, India
• Bhola, Bangladesh
• Jaynagar Majilpur, India
• Burao, Somalia
• Badaun, India
• Parbhani, India

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