Datong in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Datong in context

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

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Datong plotted against Qinghai and China. The SNDi of new construction in Datong followed a zig-zag trend with an overall decrease, compared to Qinghai which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Datong's incremental SNDi fell from 4.61 to 3.52 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Datong ranked 9th out of 10 cities in Qinghai and 1561st out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.52
Rank in China
1161st of 1843
Rank in Qinghai
9th of 10

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
4.05
Rank in China
1561st of 1843
Rank in Qinghai
9th of 10

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
DatongShantingJianghua

In new street additions, Datong fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Shanting built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Jianghua fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. Looking at the full network, Shanting and Jianghua both became progressively more disconnected, while Datong fluctuated in connectivity. Datong and Shanting have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.