Xianning 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 Xianning plotted against Hubei and China. The SNDi of new construction in Xianning was at its lowest 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, Xianning's incremental SNDi rose from 2.72 to 2.91 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Xianning ranked 41st out of 77 cities in Hubei and 1010th 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?

• Puri, India
• Bratislava, Slovakia
• Hải Dương, Vietnam
• Bayuquan, China
• Campos dos Goytacazes, Brazil
• Takht Bhai, Pakistan

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