A study on small-world characteristics of Chinaäó»s high-speed railway networks

Abstract

The small-world model provides a useful perspective and method to study the topological structure and intrinsic characteristics of high-speed rail networks (HRNs). In this paper, the P-space method is used to examine global and local HRNs in China, meanwhile the adjacency matrix is developed, then the social network analysis and visualization tool UCINET is used to calculate the spatial and attribute data of HRNs at national and local levels in China. The small-world characteristics of whole HRNs are discussed, three networks which have different properties are determined, and a comparative analysis of the small-world effect is detected. Then, the relationship between the construction of high-speed rail and regional development of China is analysed. The results show that: 1) China's HRNs have small average path length ( L ) and large clustering coefficient (C ), representing a typical small-world network; 2) Local HRNs have a certain correlation with economic development. The reasons for the difference of HRNs with respect to characteristics among regions are eventually discussed.