Zhaotong 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 Zhaotong plotted against Yunnan and China. The SNDi of new construction in Zhaotong peaked in 1976-1990, 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, Zhaotong's incremental SNDi fell from 2.78 to 2.66 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Zhaotong ranked 28th out of 78 cities in Yunnan and 711th 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?

• Famenin, Iran
• Cangnan, China
• Ngaoundéré, Cameroon
• Sasaram, India
• Tahoua, Niger
• Damoh, India

In new street additions, Zhaotong built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Famenin built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Sasaram built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Zhaotong grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Famenin became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards and Sasaram became progressively more disconnected. Notably, Zhaotong had a more connected network than Famenin in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.