Qingzhou 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 Qingzhou plotted against Shandong and China. The SNDi of new construction in Qingzhou was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Shandong which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Qingzhou's incremental SNDi rose from 4.32 to 4.81 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Qingzhou ranked 120th out of 124 cities in Shandong and 1657th 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?

• Provo, United States
• Lokoja, Nigeria
• Gangachara, Bangladesh
• Buenaventura, Colombia
• Bamenda, Cameroon
• Memphis, United States

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