Longchuan 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 Longchuan plotted against Guangdong and China. The SNDi of new construction in Longchuan was at its lowest 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, Longchuan's incremental SNDi rose from 2.56 to 3.77 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Longchuan ranked 26th out of 133 cities in Guangdong and 578th 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?

• Neqab, Iran
• Sheberghan, Afghanistan
• Breda, Netherlands
• Godda, India
• Yambio, South Sudan
• Atrauli, India

In new street additions, Longchuan built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Neqab built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Godda built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Longchuan became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards, while Neqab became progressively more connected and Godda became progressively more disconnected. Longchuan and Neqab have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.