Abstract:

Taking the waterage passenger transportation lines in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Great Bay Area (GBA) as the data source to study its complex network characteristics can enrich the traffic geography research based on waterage passenger transportation and serve the construction of the GBA. The findings are as follows. Firstly, the waterage passenger transportation network (WPTN) in the GBA is basically sound with nodes flowing freely, but the network lacks in hierarchy as nodes with low accessibility occupy the majority and is overally dispersed with low-level modularization. The complex network can be divided into two communities, of which the nodes with the highest degree are China Ferry Terminal (CFT) in Hong Kong, Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) and Shekou Port (SP) in Shenzhen, and the nodes most closely connected are HK Macao Ferry Terminal (HMFT) and Macao Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal (MOHFT). Secondly, the WPTN in the Great Bay Area has characteristics of some small world network and scale-free, of which the node distribution presents the "Matthew Effect". The average path length of the network is small, and the clustering coefficient is also small. CFT, HKIA and SP are the head nodes of the WPTN, which have the most growing feature and priority connection feature in the network. On the other side, it also shows that the internal differences of the complex network are large and the overall connectivity quality needs to be improved. Thirdly, SP is the most important node in the complex network , as its various indicators are all at the forefront. The positions of CFT, HKIA, Jiuzhou Port in Zhuhai and MOHFT in the complex network are also very important, and they have outstanding advantages in a single indicator respectively. Fourthly, from the perspective of spatial structure, the waterage passenger transportation capacity in the south of the GBA is more developed than that in the north, and that in the east is more developed than that in the west. And finally, the WPTN in the GBA has robustness and strong survivability, but the network development is not perfect enough with greater vulnerability, as the network connectivity depends too much on the core nodes and the stability is poor. After attacking the core nodes of the network, half of the remaining nodes will be greatly affected, and even some nodes become isolated ones. After calculation, there are only 31.34% of the complex network variables remained after event 3. In order to optimize the WPTN in the Great Bay Area, the suggestions are list below. First, for various core nodes, such as CFT, HKIA, SP and MOHFT, as they play important roles in the network, it is necessary to strengthen support to ensure their service capacity. Second, for edge nodes, such as Lianhuashan Port and Nansha Port in Guangzhou, Shunde Port and Gaoming Port in Foshan, we can make full use of the attraction and radiation of the city itself, fully investigate the market demand and develop new passenger transportation lines, especially increase the connections with non-core nodes and improve their position in the network, so as to enhance the stability and external attack tolerance of the whole network. And third, from the perspective of spatial pattern, it is necessary to focus on improving the waterage passenger transportation capacity in the north of the GBA and form a northern hub, in order to make the whole network more balanced. For future studies, we can focus on the evolution process and impact of the WPTN and the comprehensive research of waterage and land passenger transportation network as well.

Key words: waterage passenger transportation network, complex network analysis, accessibility, traffic network, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area