Changyuan 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 Changyuan plotted against Henan and China. The SNDi of new construction in Changyuan peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Henan which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Changyuan's incremental SNDi fell from 2.32 to 2.11 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Changyuan ranked 42nd out of 129 cities in Henan and 277th 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?

• Runan, China
• Leku, Ethiopia
• Kobo, Ethiopia
• Houma, China
• Yichuan, China
• Bridgetown, Barbados

In new street additions, Changyuan built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Runan built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Houma built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Changyuan became progressively more disconnected, while Runan became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards and Houma grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. Notably, Changyuan had a more sprawly network than Runan in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.