Matou 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 Matou plotted against Hebei and China. The SNDi of new construction in Matou peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Hebei which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Matou's incremental SNDi fell from 3.8 to 3.23 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Matou ranked 64th out of 120 cities in Hebei and 984th 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?

• Berrouaghia, Algeria
• Yichezhen, China
• Segamat, Malaysia
• Kobani, Syria
• Keshan, China
• Shwegu, Myanmar

In new street additions, Matou built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Berrouaghia fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Kobani built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Matou and Kobani both became progressively more disconnected, while Berrouaghia grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. Notably, Matou had a more connected network than Berrouaghia in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.