Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of the topology of transportation networks within different systems of cities. Urban entities and their components are complex systems by their nature; there is no central force that affects their spatial structure. Thus, we study transportation networks within different countries as complex networks. Based on the above, we consider cities as nodes, while direct air and railways routes represent the links. We present characteristics of these networks including their degree and clustering coefficient. Transportation networks can be used as an indicator of economic activity between cities. Cities with strong economic relationship are characterized by high volume of connectivity. Our findings suggest that the topology of the analyzed transportation networks can be used to classify the countries they belong to based on their economic development.
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Notes
The agglomerations were defined as the federal states of Germany and all agglomerations of more than 50,000 inhabitants.
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Further Reading
Alitalia Airlines: http://www.alitalia.com/gb_en/
Amtrak: http://www.amtrak.com
British Airlines: http://www.ba.com
The CIA World Fact Book: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
City Population: http://www.citypopulation.de/
The Complete Guide to US Train Travel: http://www.usa-by-rail.com/
Die Bahn: http://www.bahn.de/p/view/index.shtml
EasyJet Airlines: http://www.easyjet.com/
Expedia: http://www.expedia.com
Flightmapping.com: http://www.flightmapping.com/UK/
Lot Airlines: http://www.lot.com/default.aspx?_lang=en and _cid=1029
Lufthansa Airlines: http://www.lufthansa.com
National Rail Enquiries: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/
Polrail Service: http://rozklad.pkp.pl/bin/query.exe/en
Rail Europe: http://www.raileurope.com/us/index.htm
RyanAir Airlines: http://www.ryanair.com
Trenitalia: http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html
Acknowledgements
The author thanks Lucien Benguigui, Mike Batty, Rui Carvalho, and Yair Lieberthal for inspiring conversations. The author also thanks Ariel Cohen for his help in writing the code for some of the analysis. This work was supported in part by the Joan and Reginald Coleman-Cohen Fund and by the Lord Goodman Chevening Scholarship, the Balfour Diamond Jubilee Trust and the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
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Blumenfeld-Lieberthal, E. The Topology of Transportation Networks: A Comparison Between Different Economies. Netw Spat Econ 9, 427–458 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11067-008-9067-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11067-008-9067-6