ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to provide a comprehensive review of shipping data analyses. It is a tentative categorization of existing works distinguishing amongst two sets of approaches, where shipping-specific issues are central or peripheral, depending on the research angle. Shipping information serves industry-specific purposes for a better understanding of the port and maritime sector itself. This is the case of traffic engineering, operations research, transport economics and management, but also transport geography, through its focus on shipping line strategies and port competition. In line with the aforementioned digital revolution, an increasing volume of shipping data and variety of analytical tools emerged overtime. A number of existing contributions adopted network analysis with the double objective and outcome to underline the mechanisms at stake behind the distribution of shipping flows and increase the visibility of maritime research in network science. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.