Container Seaports Connectivity: A “Concept” Analysis

Ports stand as connection nodes of the global shipping transportation network and have become increasingly important in economic, social and demographic reasons. Seaports networks constitute the operational backbone of maritime trade and in extent of the contemporary globalized economy. Measuring their attractiveness as nodes in terms of connectivity has become a matter of crucial importance for managers and policy makers. The concept of connectivity is well-documented in the social network literature and to some extent, transportation engineering literature. The measurement of a port’s connectivity is challenging especially, as it cannot be observed directly through published statistics. Previous attempts to define port connectivity are based on different techniques; from ad hoc metrics to concentration methods and more recently to more complex network models. Whereas all these methods give some measures of connectivity, identifying a ports’ relative position, they are subject to specific limitations, omitting important characteristics of the liner shipping network (e.g. hub and spoke system) and thus concluding to misspecified results. Furthermore, due to the complexity of the network theory metrics and high data requirements, previous attempts also generally provide connectivity scores for a single year, without sufficient information to examine how a port’s location is changing over time. The present paper aims to accentuate the importance to measure a port’s relative position in the maritime network through an extensive analysis of what has been done until now. Underscoring and analyzing the limitations of previous studies, it redefines a port’s connectivity through a gravity-based approach.