Linyi 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 Linyi plotted against Shanxi and China. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Linyi's incremental SNDi rose from 1.17 to 3.13 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Linyi ranked 13th out of 80 cities in Shanxi and 403rd 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?

• Deir Mawas, Egypt
• Jiangchuan, China
• Itaguaí, Brazil
• Wuyishan, China
• Huanren, China
• Lingqiu, China

In new street additions, Linyi fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Deir Mawas built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Wuyishan built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Linyi fluctuated in connectivity, while Deir Mawas became progressively more disconnected and Wuyishan became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Linyi and Wuyishan have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.