Empirical analysis of the ship-transport network of China

TL;DR

This paper empirically analyzes the structural and traffic flow properties of China's ship-transport network, revealing the influence of geographical constraints and the distribution patterns of traffic weights.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive empirical study of the complex network properties and traffic flow characteristics of China's ship-transport network, highlighting the role of geography.

Findings

Geographical constraints significantly influence network topology.

Traffic weights follow power law or exponential distributions.

Network properties vary with different topological definitions.

Abstract

Structural properties of the ship-transport network of China (STNC) are studied in the light of recent investigations of complex networks. STNC is composed of a set of routes and ports located along the sea or river. Network properties including the degree distribution, degree correlations, clustering, shortest path length, centrality and betweenness are studied in different definition of network topology. It is found that geographical constraint plays an important role in the network topology of STNC. We also study the traffic flow of STNC based on the weighted network representation, and demonstrate the weight distribution can be described by power law or exponential function depending on the assumed definition of network topology. Other features related to STNC are also investigated.