Caiguan 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 Caiguan plotted against Guizhou and China. The SNDi of new construction in Caiguan rose steadily, compared to Guizhou which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Caiguan's incremental SNDi rose from 5.15 to 5.3 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Caiguan ranked 37th out of 41 cities in Guizhou and 1708th 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?

• Banma Itahri, India
• `Ataq, Yemen
• Yumbe, Uganda
• Kuje, Nigeria
• Amakpo, Nigeria
• Wabag, Papua New Guinea

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