Wenlan 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 Wenlan plotted against Yunnan and China. The SNDi of new construction in Wenlan was at its lowest in 1991-2005, compared to Yunnan which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Wenlan's incremental SNDi rose from 1.85 to 2.03 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Wenlan ranked 5th out of 78 cities in Yunnan and 224th 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?

• Renukoot, India
• Miryalaguda, India
• Anfu, China
• Phan Rang – Tháp Chàm, Vietnam
• Xinshi, China
• Mahmudabad, India

In new street additions, Wenlan built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Renukoot built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Phan Rang – Tháp Chàm built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Wenlan became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards, while Renukoot became progressively more disconnected and Phan Rang – Tháp Chàm grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. Wenlan and Renukoot have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.