Zhangjiagang 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 Zhangjiagang plotted against Jiangsu and China. The SNDi of new construction in Zhangjiagang 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, Zhangjiagang's incremental SNDi fell from 3.32 to 3.18 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Zhangjiagang ranked 70th out of 101 cities in Jiangsu and 1173rd 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?

• Aba, Nigeria
• Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
• Prague, Czechia
• Belgrade, Serbia
• Cochabamba, Bolivia
• Dushanbe, Tajikistan

While Aba and Belgrade both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Zhangjiagang built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved in new street additions. Looking at the full network, Aba and Belgrade both became progressively more disconnected, while Zhangjiagang grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Notably, Zhangjiagang had a more sprawly network than Belgrade in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.