Harbin in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Harbin in context

2.433.64.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.433.64.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
HarbinHeilongjiang (Region)China (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Harbin plotted against Heilongjiang and China. The SNDi of new construction in Harbin peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Heilongjiang which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Harbin's incremental SNDi fell from 3.11 to 2.57 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Harbin ranked 36th out of 67 cities in Heilongjiang and 588th out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.57
Rank in China
565th of 1843
Rank in Heilongjiang
24th of 67

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.5
Rank in China
588th of 1843
Rank in Heilongjiang
36th of 67

Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.

What about similarly populated cities?

1.82.73.64.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.82.73.64.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
HarbinKabulFaisalabad

While Kabul and Faisalabad both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Harbin built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved in new street additions. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Notably, Harbin had a more sprawly network than Faisalabad in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.