Deqing 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 Deqing plotted against Guangdong and China. The SNDi of new construction in Deqing was at its lowest in 1991-2005, compared to Guangdong which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Deqing's incremental SNDi rose from 1.75 to 2.9 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Deqing ranked 17th out of 133 cities in Guangdong and 397th 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?

• Karangasem, Indonesia
• Oulu, Finland
• Domeez, Iraq
• Suiping, China
• Suruç, Turkey
• Sungailiat, Indonesia

While Karangasem and Suiping both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, Deqing built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns in new street additions. For the full network, Deqing became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards, while Karangasem became progressively more disconnected and Suiping fluctuated in connectivity. Deqing and Karangasem have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.