Banzhuyuan 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 Banzhuyuan plotted against Sichuan and China. The SNDi of new construction in Banzhuyuan was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Sichuan which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Banzhuyuan's incremental SNDi rose from 2.93 to 2.94 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Banzhuyuan ranked 40th out of 98 cities in Sichuan and 962nd 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?

• Mule, China
• Xinxian, China
• K'Ali K'Esa Bota, Ethiopia
• 천성로동자구, North Korea
• Racine, United States
• Dharapuram, India

In new street additions, Banzhuyuan built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Mule fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and 천성로동자구 built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. Looking at the full network, Mule and 천성로동자구 both fluctuated in connectivity, while Banzhuyuan became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Banzhuyuan and Mule have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.