Ürümqi in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Urumqi in context

3.544.55<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3.544.55<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
UrumqiXinjiang Uygur (Region)China (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Ürümqi plotted against Xinjiang Uygur and China. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Ürümqi's incremental SNDi rose from 4.67 to 4.93 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Ürümqi ranked 30th out of 31 cities in Xinjiang Uygur and 1686th out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.93
Rank in China
1621st of 1843
Rank in Xinjiang Uygur
30th of 31

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
4.68
Rank in China
1686th of 1843
Rank in Xinjiang Uygur
30th of 31

Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.

What about similarly populated cities?

2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
UrumqiKumasiFortaleza

In new street additions, Ürümqi and Fortaleza both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Kumasi built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Ürümqi and Kumasi have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.