Hejiang 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 Hejiang plotted against Sichuan and China. The SNDi of new construction in Hejiang was at its lowest in 1991-2005, 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, Hejiang's incremental SNDi rose from 2.23 to 3.19 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Hejiang ranked 35th out of 98 cities in Sichuan and 904th 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?

• Pakaria, India
• Abu Huminus, Egypt
• Chintamani, India
• Pécs, Hungary
• Hailun, China
• Zhenxiong, China

In new street additions, Hejiang built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Pakaria built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Pécs built increasingly disconnected streets over time. Looking at the full network, Pakaria and Pécs both became progressively more disconnected, while Hejiang became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Hejiang and Pakaria have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.