Dingshu 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 Dingshu plotted against Jiangsu and China. The SNDi of new construction in Dingshu was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Jiangsu which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Dingshu's incremental SNDi rose from 2.98 to 3.74 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Dingshu ranked 53rd out of 101 cities in Jiangsu and 891st 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?

• Jongju, North Korea
• Saint-Étienne, France
• Tinsukia, India
• Batkhela, Pakistan
• Swindon, United Kingdom
• Pingyi, China

In new street additions, Dingshu built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Jongju fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Batkhela built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Dingshu became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards, while Jongju became progressively more connected and Batkhela became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Dingshu and Jongju have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.