Indicator metadata: Maritime freight regional typologies

Maritime freight transport
The cluster analysis for maritime freight transport used the seven indicators as done for the other modes. Because of the lower number of regions for maritime transport compared to land transport modes, regions were grouped into three clusters only, described as follows:
Cluster A "Less intense maritime freight transport regions" comprise regions that have maritime freight transport characteristics below the average of all European port regions. Those regions do have the necessary port infrastructure, but connectivity, absolute and relative volumes are much lower than elsewhere.
Cluster B "Standard maritime freight transport regions" behave in several aspects covered by the indicators around the average port region in Europe. This is in particular true for the intensity indicators, the intraregional balance and the network selectivity. However, these regions do have the highest connectivity, but have a clear negative send-receive balance, i.e. they are importing more maritime freight transport volumes than they are sending.
Cluster C "Major maritime freight transport regions" include those regions that have clearly above average connectivity, absolute and relative intensity, dominate the intraregional balance, have very little network selectivity and have much more maritime freight transport volume sent than received.