Xiangning 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 Xiangning plotted against Shanxi and China. The SNDi of new construction in Xiangning peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Shanxi which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Xiangning's incremental SNDi fell from 1.16 to 0.76 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Xiangning ranked 1st out of 80 cities in Shanxi and 6th 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?

• Samadon, Egypt
• Xiuwen, China
• Cuamba, Mozambique
• Chibintepa, Uzbekistan
• Pato Branco, Brazil
• Quillota, Chile

In new street additions, Xiangning built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Samadon built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Chibintepa built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Xiangning grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Samadon became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards and Chibintepa became progressively more disconnected.