Structural Characteristics and Changes of Crude Oil Shipping Network along the Belt and Road in the Context of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

The impact of international geopolitics on transportation network patterns is an important topic in economics and transportation geography. Previous studies have often overlooked the diversity of domestic crude oil transportation among countries due to limitations in statistical data, focusing mainly on national-level node selection. Additionally, the evolution of network characteristics is predominantly analyzed through long-term descriptive approaches, lacking specific contextual analyses of network evolution. This study investigates changes in the maritime crude oil transportation network along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) routes against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, offering new evidence for research in this field. Using AIS(Automatic Identification System) ship trajectory big data and complex network analysis methods, this study analyzes the overall characteristics, node importance, core-periphery structure, and clustering of the maritime crude oil transportation network along the BR