Liannan 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 Liannan plotted against Guangdong and China. The SNDi of new construction in Liannan peaked in 1976-1990, 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, Liannan's incremental SNDi fell from 2.62 to 1.99 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Liannan ranked 36th out of 133 cities in Guangdong and 679th 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?

• Klaeng, Thailand
• Sapouy, Burkina Faso
• Ekangala, South Africa
• Quipungo, Angola
• Zhanhuaqu, China
• Wels, Austria

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