Wikong 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 Wikong plotted against Lomami and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The SNDi of new construction in Wikong was at its lowest in 1991-2005, compared to Lomami which rose steadily and Democratic Republic of the Congo which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Wikong's incremental SNDi rose from 3.16 to 4.38 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Wikong ranked 4th out of 8 cities in Lomami and 127th out of 186 in Democratic Republic of the Congo as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Le Tampon, Réunion
• Xian'an, China
• Itabaiana, Brazil
• Itapeva, Brazil
• Sartu, China
• Heping, China

While Le Tampon and Itapeva both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Wikong built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns in new street additions. Looking at the full network, Le Tampon and Itapeva both became progressively more disconnected, while Wikong became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Notably, Wikong had a more sprawly network than Le Tampon in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.