Ports in a World Maritime System: A Multilevel Analysis - Methods for Multilevel Analysis and Visualisation of Geographical Networks - page 131

Fig. 8.4 Central clusters in the world maritime system, 2006 (continued) (Source: realized by the
author based on LMIU and TULIP)
(Israel) is more diverse geographically, but one can notice a spatial continuity from
Southeast Asia (Bangkok) to Brazil (Rio Grande, Itajai) across the Middle Eastern,
Mediterranean, and North African ports. Only a few exceptions deviate from this
corridor of ports (Fig. 8.4 ).
The very important role of the geographical and historical continuum becomes
clear with weighted clusters. A Northeast Asian cluster centered on Yokohama
interestingly connects some outer ports; a “Latin” cluster centered on Cartagena
(Colombia) primarily gathers South European and Latin American ports; another
cluster centered on Antwerp is predominantly European with some US Gulf Coast
ports; and finally, a cluster centered on Dakar gathers a mix of African and Asian
ports. The evolution between 1996 and 2006 for weighted clusters shows some
permanency, with a majority of Iberian Peninsula / Latin American / Northeast
Asia / European ports differently represented within a few central clusters.