Hitachinaka 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 Hitachinaka plotted against Ibaraki and Japan. The SNDi of new construction in Hitachinaka peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Ibaraki which peaked in 1976-1990 and Japan which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Hitachinaka's incremental SNDi fell from 2.28 to 2.14 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Hitachinaka ranked 3rd out of 7 cities in Ibaraki and 39th out of 135 in Japan as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Keshod, India
• Gia Kiệm, Vietnam
• Ambovombe, Madagascar
• Xixia, China
• Al Qurayyat, Saudi Arabia
• Barentu, Eritrea

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