Pubei 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 Pubei plotted against Guangxi and China. The SNDi of new construction in Pubei was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Guangxi which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Pubei's incremental SNDi rose from 1.55 to 2.82 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Pubei ranked 7th out of 63 cities in Guangxi and 293rd 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?

• Ruili, China
• Mpumalanga, South Africa
• Simões Filho, Brazil
• Longhui, China
• La Piedad de Cabadas, México
• Tucupita, Venezuela

In new street additions, Pubei built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Ruili built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Longhui fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Pubei became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards, while Ruili became progressively more disconnected and Longhui fluctuated in connectivity. Pubei and Ruili have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.