The Topology and the Emerging Urban Geographies of the Internet Backbone and Aviation Networks in Europe: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to compare the topology and the emerging urban geographies of two infrastructural networks across European cities: the international intercity Internet backbone and aviation networks. Both of them are facilitators of the knowledge economy and contribute to what was identified by Castells as the first layer of the space of flows, supporting the world city process. In order to compare them, network analysis methods and complex networks theory are employed. The results indicate the different attributes of these networks, the lack of scale-free characteristics but also the different roles different cities perform in these networks.