Fostering Ports Synergies by Centrality Measures: An Approach Based on Automated Identification Systems

In recent decades, maritime transport is facing a continuous growth generating a rapid development of port infrastructures but also the need to adopt synergy policies between neighbouring ports in order to optimize spaces and resources. In this respect, the knowledge of the main maritime routes and traffic volumes for freight and passenger in each port is essential to establish hierarchies, intervention priorities and to evaluate infrastructure specializations in a planning perspective. In this study an approach based on Automatic Identification System (AIS) is used to build a mathematical model with trajectories vessels between ports, ships classification and traffic volumes, in order to frame a regional network of maritime trades. Network centrality indices are calculated to assess the spatial-temporal characteristics and structure of regional ports’ network. The method is applied to the case study of ports located in Sicily, an Italian region characterized by the peculiarity of being an island with more than 1000 km of coasts and a strategic location in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea; both of these characteristics make it a breeding ground for port infrastructure development and terminal specialization.