Kowon in context: Street-network sprawl trends
Kowon in context
The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Kowon plotted against Hamgyŏng-namdo and North Korea. The SNDi of new construction in Kowon followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to Hamgyŏng-namdo which peaked in 1991-2005 and North Korea which peaked in 1976-1990. Most recently, Kowon's incremental SNDi rose from 4.39 to 4.9 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Kowon ranked 2nd out of 11 cities in Hamgyŏng-namdo and 22nd out of 92 in North Korea as of 2020.
New Street Additions (2006–2020)
- SNDi value
- 4.9
- Rank in North Korea
- 43rd of 92
- Rank in Hamgyŏng-namdo
- 6th of 11
Entire Network (Aggregate)
- SNDi value
- 4.38
- Rank in North Korea
- 22nd of 92
- Rank in Hamgyŏng-namdo
- 2nd of 11
Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.
What about similarly populated cities?
In new street additions, Kowon fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Bangarapete built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Fengtai built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. For the full network, Kowon fluctuated in connectivity, while Bangarapete became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards and Fengtai became progressively more disconnected. Notably, Kowon had a more connected network than Bangarapete in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.