Shigatse 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 Shigatse plotted against Xizang and China. The SNDi of new construction in Shigatse peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Xizang which fell steadily and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Shigatse's incremental SNDi fell from 4.56 to 3.75 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Shigatse ranked 2nd out of 3 cities in Xizang and 1504th 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?

• Pauakhali, India
• Kungyangon, Myanmar
• Nirsa, India
• Demebecha, Ethiopia
• Kyauktaga, Myanmar
• Fangzheng, China

In new street additions, Shigatse built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Pauakhali built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Demebecha built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Shigatse grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Pauakhali became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards and Demebecha became progressively more disconnected. Shigatse and Demebecha have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.