Shiren 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 Shiren plotted against Jilin and China. The SNDi of new construction in Shiren peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Jilin which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Shiren's incremental SNDi fell from 6.46 to 6.16 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Shiren ranked 44th out of 47 cities in Jilin and 1607th out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Tunduru, Tanzania
• Tierkloof, South Africa
• Fiche, Ethiopia
• Boujdour, Western Sahara
• Obe, Afghanistan
• Jingguan, China

In new street additions, Tunduru and Boujdour both fluctuated in street-construction patterns, while Shiren built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. For the full network, Shiren and Tunduru both became progressively more disconnected, while Boujdour fluctuated in connectivity. Shiren and Tunduru have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.