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maritime history is proposed by
Westerdahl
(
1996
), who examines how maritime
itineraries shape functional regions in Scandinavia and Europe in the early Middle
Ages. In a similar vein but based on the application of network algorithms,
Joly
(
1999
) proposed a worldwide analysis of maritime linkages among main
regions, resulting in the calculation of estimated port throughputs based on vessel
movements. Other specific studies of liner networks cover specific regional areas
such as the North Atlantic (
Helmick
,
1994
), the Caribbean (
McCalla, Slack, &
Comtois
,
2005
;
Veenstra, Mulder, & Sels
,
2005
;
Wilmsmeier & Hoffmann
,
2008
),
the Mediterranean (
Cisic, Komadina, & Hlaca
,
2007
), and the relative position of
North Korean ports in Northeast Asia (
Ducruet
,
2008a
). While such studies clearly
focus on port performance and maritime network design, notably visualizing the
situation of ports in such networks, they do not have a multi-level approach, and
they rarely relate network attributes with port performance
3
.
Despite their fundamental legacy in clarifying our understanding of contempo-
rary shipping and port development, two main weaknesses can be highlighted in
such studies. First, the regional scale in which ports are studied is often defined
arbitrarily; this argument is defended by
Slack
(
1999
) in his study on the evolution
of containerization in the North Atlantic. Therefore, the regional areas within which
different ports share privileged linkages are taken for granted and are not well-
studied. Second, individual measures of port performance rarely include different
levels of observation, from the local to the global, although it is recognized that
contemporary ports are better compared through their ability to connect scales
rather than through their traffic volume rankings (
De Roo
,
1994
). It seems that
those objectives - definition of regional areas and individual measures - strongly
require an engagement as indicated by current research on social network analysis
and small worlds.
8.3
Structure of the World Maritime System
8.3.1
Data Source and Methodology
Three main data sources exist for the analysis of maritime networks from a graph
perspective. The previously mentioned
Containerisation International Yearbooks
offer an overview of the main service schedules of the world's shipping lines,
3
This statement should not ignore that some authors point to specific situations in which a
relationship is established between performance and network design. For instance, Lago et al.
(2001) note that last ports of call attract more cargo on average because of transit time advantages;
Notteboom (
2006
) specifies that upstream ports generate more cargo throughputs because ocean
carriers compensate for the deviation between distance and time; Ducruet (
2008a
) finds that ports
situated within larger urban regions often have a higher share of long-distance connections in
their traffic. The main problem underscored in this chapter is the lack of systematic empirical
verification, especially on a global scale.
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