Distance Friction and Spatial Interaction Dynamics of International Freight Transportation

The modern economy runs with heavy reliance on the free flow of goods across the international logistic and supply chain. Advances in international freight transportation systems supported by intermodal integration, freight containerization, hub-and-spoke shipping system, and supply chain security, has reduced the distance friction of flow of goods and drastically lowered physical barriers of commercial activities. However, it is little known yet how spatial interactions of trade and shipping take place under the complex logistic chain process and what spatial phenomena ensue from such processes. In this dissertation, I study the nature of spatial interaction phenomena in the context of the contemporary state of the international transportation system. First, I study how the spatial structure of the port system is formed with intermodal integration of the modern international logistic system across land and water. Second, I explore how the hub-and-spoke system in the international transportation network contributes to the global shrinkage of space. Third, I investigate the effect of domestic armed conflicts developed by political instability on freight mobility and ensuing differential openness of regions to the global market. Results of the three pieces of research are as follows. First, the spatial structure of the port system is found to comprise interdependent collections of hinterlands, feeder and hub ports, and forelands along a logistical continuum, which mirror the functional division of logistic processes across space. Second, the hub-and-spoke shipping system reduces the distance friction of shipping flows and is the main driver of global shrinkage of space in terms of long-distance trade. Third, freight mobility is found to be greatly compromised by the lack of logistic chain security stemming from prevailing armed violence along inland transportation corridors. The findings confirm that intermodal logistic integration, hub-and-spoke distribution system and supply chain security are important key components of the modern international transportation system that determine global-scale spatial organization, shipping flow and freight mobility.