Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Social transportation systems are remarkable examples of Complex Systems.Understanding their patterns and their dynamics in a holistic and global way is an obligated duty if we humans want to ever be able to manage our social systems in an efficient way, friendly with our surrounding ecosystems and with ourselves.The general purpose of this research project is to contribute with the understanding of transport phenomena in networks, from a complex system perspective.In this work we present a mathematical model that replicates certain spatial characteristics of transportation networks.We use the measure of betweenness centrality as an approximate measure of the traffic within the network, and we show that holes are crucial actors that affect the transport phenomena.Some important results are obtained from the statistics of the betweenness centrality.In particular, we observe an exponential distribution of betweenness centrality when the holes are equal sized and randomly distributed within the network, and a power law tail distribution when the holes are also randomly positioned but with sizes power law distributed.Additionally, corridors of high betweenness centrality emerge, suggesting the plausibility of holes as one of the causes of road hierarchies in networks.General guidelines for traffic assessment and road network management are given in light of the results shed by the model.
Author: Gomez-Lievano, Andres
Language: English
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3004025292