Kaechon 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 Kaechon plotted against P'yŏngan-namdo and North Korea. While P'yŏngan-namdo and North Korea both peaked in 1976-1990, Kaechon's new street additions peaked in 1976-1990. Most recently, Kaechon's incremental SNDi fell from 6.17 to 5.2 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Kaechon ranked 14th out of 21 cities in P'yŏngan-namdo and 60th 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?

• Madaripur, Bangladesh
• Magdeburg, Germany
• Xinji, China
• Pyatigorsk, Russia
• Kayes, Mali
• Ouargla, Algeria

In new street additions, Kaechon built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Madaripur built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Pyatigorsk fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Kaechon grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Madaripur became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards and Pyatigorsk became progressively more disconnected. Kaechon and Madaripur have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.