Shuzi 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 Shuzi plotted against Guangdong and China. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Shuzi's incremental SNDi rose from 5.43 to 8.65 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Shuzi ranked 120th out of 133 cities in Guangdong and 1744th 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?

• Hezhang, China
• Colatina, Brazil
• Đồng Hới, Vietnam
• Barari, India
• Wadi Ad Dawasir, Saudi Arabia
• Kochas, India

In new street additions, Shuzi fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Hezhang built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Barari built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Shuzi and Hezhang both became progressively more disconnected, while Barari became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Notably, Shuzi had a more connected network than Barari in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.