The geography of maritime ranges: interfacing global maritime shipping networks with Hinterlands
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The geography of maritime ranges: interfacing global maritime shipping networks with Hinterlands Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Accepted: 26 September 2020 Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The paper looks at an intermediate scale of analysis for maritime transportation; the maritime range. Maritime ranges are bounded regions where a set of ports are either in competition, complementary, sharing a common regulatory regime, or having some fundamental geographical commonality. This scale is mostly missing from the research about the structure and organization of maritime transportation focusing on either the port or on the shipping network. The paper proposes a methodology defining maritime ranges bounded by maritime, inter-range, and hinterland boundaries. This methodology is applied to define 28 global maritime ranges representing functional commercial entities generating and attracting maritime traffic. Keywords Port geography Port hinterland Maritime ranges
J.-P. Rodrigue (&) Department of Global Studies and Geography, Hofstra University, New York 11549, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Maritime ranges: defining a unit of analysis A matter of scale The importance of maritime transportation as a linchpin of global trade requires new analytical frameworks, particularly as they relate to the scale of analysis, which can vary from a single terminal to the global maritime shipping system (Lloyd 2014). Each of these scales contributes to the understanding of the geography of maritime transportation by offering a unit of analysis framing transport demand, networks, and flows. Global maritime shipping networks have been the object of substantial attention since they help explain the drivers and network structure of maritime transportation (e.g. Ducruet 2013; Ducruet et al. 2018). It is, however, challenging to infer global processes to local geographical units since each of these units is connected differently into the global mesh. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the port and its terminals represent a highly relevant multidimensional unit of analysis (Ng et al. 2014). Still, it is hazardous to infer local dynamics reflective of one port to other ports. Even port authorities show an impressive diversity of involvement in local port and stakeholder management (Van der Lugt et al. 2015). In such a context, the port remains a case study that can be used comparatively to find some common economic and functional factors (e.g. Lee et al. 2016).
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What appears to be missing is an intermediate scale of analysis investigating the interactions between global and local maritime transport systems. As noted in reviews of the port geography literature, only 1% of the papers focused on a regional consideration beyond the nation, while about half focused on a single port (Marei and Ducruet 2015). An issue worth considering in the geography of ports and maritime shipping is what could be the largest possible regional unit of analysis that can be constructed fro
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