Pan Jing-Jing, Zhang Yong-Feng, Fan Bi
College of Business Administration, Fujian Jiangxia University, Fuzhou, PR China.
School of Economics and Management, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, PR China.
Ocean Coast Manag. 2022 Oct 1;229:106338. doi: 10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2022.106338. Epub 2022 Aug 29.
A container shipping network connects coastal countries with each other and facilitates most of the world merchandise trade. Reliable maritime connectivity ensures the availability of commodities and economic growth. The global spread of COVID-19 has led to port failures and service cancellations, resulting in decreased connectivity level of container ports. To mitigate the impact of the pandemic, a graph theory approach is proposed to strength the container shipping network connectivity by considering topology and the possibility of opening new shipping links between ports. It is designed to maximize network connectivity with limited addable routes. The network connectivity is measured by algebraic connectivity, and the possibility of opening new shipping links is estimated by an extended gravity model. A heuristic algorithm based on Fiedler vector is introduced to obtain the optimal solutions. The performance of the proposed model and algorithm are verified by testing on a real-world container shipping network based on the Alphaliner database. Experimental results illustrate that the presented model is efficient and effective for strengthening the connectivity. Policy makers can refer to the suggested optimal shipping links to facilitate better shipping network connectivity in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
集装箱航运网络将沿海国家相互连接起来，并推动了世界上大部分的商品贸易。可靠的海上连通性确保了商品的供应和经济增长。新冠疫情在全球的蔓延导致港口运营中断和服务取消，致使集装箱港口的连通性水平下降。为减轻疫情的影响，本文提出一种图论方法，通过考虑拓扑结构以及港口之间开辟新航运线路的可能性，来增强集装箱航运网络的连通性。该方法旨在利用有限的可添加航线实现网络连通性最大化。网络连通性通过代数连通性来衡量，开辟新航运线路的可能性则由扩展引力模型进行估计。引入了一种基于菲德勒向量的启发式算法来获取最优解。通过基于Alphaliner数据库的真实世界集装箱航运网络进行测试，验证了所提模型和算法的性能。实验结果表明，所提出的模型在增强连通性方面是高效且有效的。政策制定者可以参考建议的最优航运线路，以便在新冠疫情背景下促进更好的航运网络连通性。
