Wuwei in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Wuwei in context

2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
WuweiGansu (Region)China (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Wuwei plotted against Gansu and China. The SNDi of new construction in Wuwei 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, Wuwei's incremental SNDi fell from 2.28 to 2.0 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Wuwei ranked 3rd out of 29 cities in Gansu and 527th out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.0
Rank in China
248th of 1843
Rank in Gansu
2nd of 29

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.43
Rank in China
527th of 1843
Rank in Gansu
3rd of 29

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
WuweiIgbokodaYanbu`

In new street additions, Wuwei and Igbokoda both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Yanbu` built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Wuwei and Igbokoda both grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Yanbu` became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Notably, Wuwei had a more connected network than Yanbu` in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.