Analyzing the Maritime Transportation System in Greece: a Complex Network Approach

Abstract

Maritime networks of coastal and insular countries constitute fundamental transportation systems affecting the economy and the developmental dynamics of their countries. Under this perspective, the present article studies the Greek Maritime transportation Network (GMN), by using a complex network approach for the part of structural analysis and empirical techniques for the socioeconomic evaluation of the GMN’s topology. A methodological framework is developed for dealing with the GMN’s disconnectivity, which is evaluated by the empirical analysis. The curve fitting procedure on the degree distribution data indicated the existence of some scale-free network properties of the GMN, which seemed to be also captured as high correlations between pairs of binary and their homologous distance-weighted node structural variables, electing a topic of further empirical research on various networks. This status implies a kind of GMN’s structural indifference to distance, favoring the development of transportation activities into greater distances within the GMN. Also, the linear regression analysis modeled the connectivity of the GMN, electing topological, spatial and socioeconomic information. Finally, this paper elected the utility of complex network analysis in the study of national maritime networks, capable in providing new insights to the transportation policy makers of Greece. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York