Maritime Traffic as a Complex Network: a Systematic Review

Abstract

This article proposes a systematic review of papers dealing with maritime traffic whose methodology is based on a Complex Network Analysis (CNA) approach. The papers selected have been categorised, reviewed and analysed, extracting the most important characteristics of each, namely sources of information, geographical scope and network modelling characteristics, and then grouped according to the specific topics covered. The literature is classified according to two main streams: Papers dealing with a topological description of maritime networks, and papers applying a CNA approach to specific topics. In each case, an analysis is carried out, highlighting the most interesting concepts and methodologies of the selected papers, summarising the most important findings and proposing further topics for investigation. An additional analysis has been carried out with the keywords of the selected papers, creating a network and identifying seven communities representing and grouping the main research interest topics in the selected literature.