Tanchon 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 Tanchon plotted against Hamgyŏng-namdo and North Korea. While Hamgyŏng-namdo and North Korea both peaked in 1976-1990, Tanchon's new street additions peaked in 1976-1990. Most recently, Tanchon's incremental SNDi fell from 5.93 to 1.53 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Tanchon ranked 4th out of 11 cities in Hamgyŏng-namdo and 34th out of 92 in North Korea as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Tân Phú, Vietnam
• Shuangfeng, China
• Rustaq, Afghanistan
• Ashkelon, Israel
• Biruaca, Venezuela
• Hisor, Tajikistan

In new street additions, Tanchon built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Tân Phú built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Ashkelon fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Tanchon grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Tân Phú became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards and Ashkelon fluctuated in connectivity. Tanchon and Tân Phú have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.