Traffic Inequality and Relations in Maritime Silk Road: A Network Flow Analysis

Abstract

Maritime traffic can reflect the diverse and complex relations between countries and regions, such as economic trade and geopolitics. Based on the AIS (Automatic Identification System) trajectory data of ships, this study constructs the Maritime Silk Road traffic network. In this study, we used a complex network theory along with social network analysis and network flow analysis to analyze the spatial distribution characteristics of maritime traffic flow of the Maritime Silk Road; further, we empirically demonstrate the traffic inequality in the route. On this basis, we explore the role of the country in the maritime traffic system and the resulting traffic relations. There are three main results of this study. (1) The inequality in the maritime traffic of the Maritime Silk Road has led to obvious regional differences. Europe, west Asia, northeast Asia, and southeast Asia are the dominant regions of the Maritime Silk Road. (2) Different countries play different maritime traffic roles. Italy, Singapore, and China are the core countries in the maritime traffic network of the Maritime Silk Road; Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, and Israel have built a structure of maritime traffic flow in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and Saudi Arabia serves as a bridge for maritime trade between Asia and Europe. (3) The maritime traffic relations show the characteristics of regionalization; countries in west Asia and the European Mediterranean region are clearly polarized, and competition–synergy relations have become the main form of maritime traffic relations among the countries in the dominant regions. Our results can provide a scientific reference for the coordinated development of regional shipping, improvement of maritime competition, cooperation strategies for countries, and adjustments in the organizational structure of ports along the Maritime Silk Road.

Analyzing appropriate autonomous vessel for South-East Asian route: from the view of seafarers

“…The autonomous vessel's concept catches the world's concern for several reasons, not only for technological advancement, but also because this vessel is considered sustainable shipping. In the shipping industry, autonomous adoption can reduce operational costs and reduce CO 2 and NO x emissions (Mou et al 2021 ). The study conducted a survey on seafarers who has navigation experience.…”

“…The route was the part of the ancient silk road and now included in the twenty-first century's silk road which begins from the Quanzhou in Fujian province, runs through Guangzhou, Beihai, and Haikou, following those heads to the south of the Malacca Straits and from the Kuala Lumpur goes towards Kolkata, India and after passing the Indian Ocean will move to Nairobi, Kenya, and the route will end at the land-based silk road in Venice after crossing the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea (Hong 2015 ). With the development of the Maritime Silk Road initiative, where Southeast Asia is one of the dominant regions, maritime traffic along the route increased significantly (Mou et al 2021 ).On the other hand, Asian developed countries are accountable for the majority of world maritime trade; it is estimated that 76% of total maritime trade volume is loaded and unloaded in developing countries, and continuously the volume is increasing due to the growing container trade for the world's factory boosting in intra-Asia, especially in South-east Asia (UNCTAD 2020 ). As per UNCTAD, 16 of the world's top 20 container ports are located in Asia, and the positions are the same in 2018 and 2019 (UNCTAD 2020 ).…”

AIS and VBD Data Fusion for Marine Fishing Intensity Mapping and Analysis in the Northern Part of the South China Sea

“…Therefore, the Beibu Gulf fishery and the fishery in the northern part of the South China Sea continental shelf (along the coast o Guangdong and around Hainan Island) were selected as the main study areas (see Figure 1), located in the range of 107.159° E~111.975° E and 17.591° N~21.881° N, with a total area of about 160,000 km 2 and a water depth of 0-1500 m, with an average water depth of 200 m. Most of the study area lies within Chinese waters, but it also includes some waters of Vietnam. AIS equipment provides ships with a near-real-time state vector (e.g., position, speed, heading), static information (e.g., ship identifier, size, ship type), and voyage-related information (e.g., destination, estimated time of arrival, draft) [38], and carries out information exchange with other ships, not only with coastal AIS base stations [39,40]. AIS has the typical characteristics of big data, rich attribute information, wide coverage, and is commonly used in relevant studies on fishing intensity, IUU, and the maritime perception of Marine fishery [29].…”

Trajectory Similarity Analysis with the Weight of Direction and k-Neighborhood for AIS Data

“…AIS has a high spatiotemporal resolution, large data volumes, and covers the ports and seas in most global regions [3,4]. It has been used by an increasing number of studies to analyze various maritime traffic problems [5][6][7].…”