Changning 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 Changning plotted against Sichuan and China. The SNDi of new construction in Changning peaked 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, Changning's incremental SNDi fell from 1.72 to 1.54 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Changning ranked 3rd out of 98 cities in Sichuan and 89th 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?

• Phulbari, Bangladesh
• Chililabombwe, Zambia
• Kaiserslautern, Germany
• Zheleznogorsk, Russia
• Kumanovo, North Macedonia
• Fenghuang, China

While Phulbari and Zheleznogorsk both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, Changning built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved in new street additions. For the full network, Changning and Zheleznogorsk both grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Phulbari became progressively more disconnected. Changning and Phulbari have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.