Wugang 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 Wugang plotted against Henan and China. The SNDi of new construction in Wugang 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, Wugang's incremental SNDi fell from 3.13 to 2.42 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Wugang ranked 73rd out of 129 cities in Henan and 732nd 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?

• Rajgarh, India
• Catanduva, Brazil
• Ciénaga, Colombia
• Onomichi, Japan
• Bera, Bangladesh
• Resende, Brazil

In new street additions, Wugang built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Rajgarh fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Onomichi fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Wugang grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Rajgarh fluctuated in connectivity and Onomichi became progressively more disconnected. Notably, Wugang had a more connected network than Rajgarh in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.