Gulou in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Gulou in context

1.62.43.24<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.62.43.24<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
GulouShandong (Region)China (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Gulou plotted against Shandong and China. The SNDi of new construction in Gulou rose steadily, compared to Shandong which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Gulou's incremental SNDi rose from 2.37 to 2.61 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Gulou ranked 50th out of 124 cities in Shandong and 297th out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.61
Rank in China
596th of 1843
Rank in Shandong
62nd of 124

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.13
Rank in China
297th of 1843
Rank in Shandong
50th of 124

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

What about similarly populated cities?

123456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
123456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
GulouMokpo-siHaeju

In new street additions, Gulou built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Mokpo-si fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Haeju built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Gulou and Mokpo-si both became progressively more disconnected, while Haeju grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. Gulou and Mokpo-si have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.