Regional coal transportation of closed loop in China: Time series and spatial analysis

Coal is a main primary energy sources in China. The regional coal transportation of closed loop in China reflects on inter- or intra- regional interaction of energy economy. This paper uses 0-1 linear programming to decompose the matrices of coal transportation on eight regions of mainland China to two hierarchies sub-matrices. We figure out the top-two hierarchies regional coal transportation of closed loop in China from 1998 to 2007, to present analysis of the characteristics on both temporal and spatial changes in mainland China. The results show that: Firstly, regional coal transportation of closed loop have not change greatly in short term, indicating that the pattern of our region´s resources, as well as demand for coal supply in the short term with a relatively stability. Secondly, the spatial features of the coal transportation of closed loop are clear in Chinese eight regions from 1998 to 2003. They are all the inter- regional closed loop for the first hierarchy, and all the intra- regional closed loop for the second hierarchy, but the spatial features have been not clear since 2004, the closed loops take on inter- and intra- region together both the first hierarchy and the second hierarchy. According to the results of the first hierarchy regional coal transportation of closed loop, it shows that the maximum of regional coal transportation of closed loop in China not only takes on the inter- region, but also takes on intra- region, thus it is strengthening for interregional energy economics interaction.