Wuhan in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Wuhan in context

33.544.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
33.544.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
WuhanHubei (Region)China (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Wuhan plotted against Hubei and China. The SNDi of new construction in Wuhan peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Hubei which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Wuhan's incremental SNDi fell from 4.06 to 3.72 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Wuhan ranked 56th out of 77 cities in Hubei and 1344th out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.72
Rank in China
1266th of 1843
Rank in Hubei
60th of 77

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.46
Rank in China
1344th of 1843
Rank in Hubei
56th of 77

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

What about similarly populated cities?

1.62.43.24<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.62.43.24<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
WuhanNagoyaLuanda

In new street additions, Wuhan built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Nagoya built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Luanda built increasingly connected streets over time. For the full network, Wuhan and Nagoya both became progressively more disconnected, while Luanda became progressively more connected. Wuhan and Nagoya have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.