Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8
Ports in a World Maritime System:
A Multilevel Analysis
César Ducruet
8.1
Introduction
Contemporary sea transport carries approximately 90 % of the world trade volume.
Despite this enormous importance, very little attention has been paid to the spatial
organization of maritime networks throughout transport geography. Extensive
research has been performed on air transport and other land-based networks; in the
latter, urban centrality is the chief concern, whereas seaports are often considered
aberrant cases and of peripheral interest because of a predominantly continental
conception of urban and economic geography.
The aim of this chapter is to further understand the relative position of seaports
within a world maritime system formed by the circulation of containerships.
A global database of daily vessel movements allows for the study of the individual
network attributes of seaports. Such a study will shed new light on the relationship
between the individual network attributes of seaports and the classical indicators of
throughput volume. In addition, this research applies clustering methodologies to
the world graph to reveal the functional regions in which ports are embedded, while
also evaluating the respective importance of geographical proximity and economical
linkages.
The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows: The first section reviews
the lack of network analysis on maritime networks throughout port geography and
economics. It also provides some possible explanations for the lack of significant
research in this area and some key directions for potential improvements. The
second section introduces the data and the methodology together with some
preliminary results of port rankings and a visualization of the world graph in 1996
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