Xiangshui 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 Xiangshui plotted against Jiangsu and China. The SNDi of new construction in Xiangshui peaked 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, Xiangshui's incremental SNDi fell from 1.93 to 1.93 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Xiangshui ranked 12th out of 101 cities in Jiangsu and 177th 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?

• Yangxin, China
• Guanyun, China
• Bhurkunda, India
• Chunian, Pakistan
• Allahabad, Pakistan
• Yessentuki, Russia

While Yangxin and Chunian both built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, Xiangshui built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved in new street additions. For the full network, Xiangshui became progressively more disconnected, while Yangxin became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards and Chunian became progressively more connected. Xiangshui and Yangxin have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.