Abstract
Air transportation is of great importance in “the Belt and Road” (the B&R) region. The achievement of the B&R initiative relies on the availability, reliability, and safety of air transport infrastructure. A fundamental step is to find the critical elements in network performance. Considering the uneven distributions of population and economy, the current literature focusing on centrality measures in unweighted networks is not sufficient in the B&R region. By differentiating power and centrality in the B&R region, our analysis leads to two conclusions: (1) Deactivating powerful nodes causes a larger decrease in efficiency than deactivating central nodes. This indicates that powerful nodes in the B&R region are more critical than central nodes for network robustness. (2) Strategically adding edges between high powerful and low powerful nodes can enhance the network’s ability to exchange resources efficiently. These findings can be used to adjust government policies for air transport configuration to achieve the best network performance and the most cost effective.
Highlights
Many studies use simulations to explore various transportation networks and complex systems to understand the relational structures in real networks as diverse as airlines [1], [2], maritime [3]–[5] and railway networks [6], [7]
Our analysis indicates that cities in the Belt and Road’’ (the B&R) aviation network were not always ranked from highly powerful and central nodes to powerless and peripheral cities
Based on the examination of the existence and distinct characteristics of centrality and power in the transport network in the B&R region, the exploratory study in our analysis has confirmed that (1) deactivating powerful nodes can cause greater reductions in efficiency than deactivating central nodes or random failure, indicating that powerful nodes in the B&R region are more critical than central nodes in the performance of network robustness; (2) network efficiency is improved most by configuring proper physical links between high and low powerful nodes
Summary
Many studies use simulations to explore various transportation networks and complex systems to understand the relational structures in real networks as diverse as airlines [1], [2], maritime [3]–[5] and railway networks [6], [7]. Network structure plays a critical role in fostering network functions and values. The two most important properties of a network, have attracted increasing attention [8]. Network robustness is important in the case of random node failure or targeted attack [8]. In the analysis of complex networks, it is critical to identify those components that may lead to network vulnerabilities or that allow the network to be appropriately managed [9].
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