Network analysis in the Caribbean

Abstract

The Caribbean region is a cross road of international and regional containertraffic. Most of the islands in the region have also adopted ambitiousstrategies to become prime locations for container transshipment. This paperintroduces a tool that can be used to visualise and analyse the Caribbeancontainer flows. The tool is constructed on the basis of a multi-layeredgraph structure and is highly parameterized to allow for flexible selectionof flows and ports. The tool supports the assessment of the potential forthe development of logistics and transport hub through the calculation ofrelevant indicators using available information on container flows in theregion. Much of the empirical work centers on the estimation of theorigin-destination matrix of container flows in the region. The paperpresents a case study for the island of Curacao.Caribbean;container flows;hub port;network analysis