Guangshan 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 Guangshan plotted against Henan and China. The SNDi of new construction in Guangshan peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Henan which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Guangshan's incremental SNDi fell from 2.26 to 1.95 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Guangshan ranked 36th out of 129 cities in Henan and 214th 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?

• Debre Tabor, Ethiopia
• Apizaco, México
• Makhdumpur, India
• Phalia, Pakistan
• Ogharefe, Nigeria
• Hlegu, Myanmar

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