Developing a Global Index for Maritime Location of Countries

Intrduction Changing nature of the relationship between human and geographical environment has had considerable influence on geographical science school of thought. In terms of "ecological analysis", this relationship is one of the important research fields in geographical sciences. Geographic location is one of the key elements in the environment, which is divided into a number of subgroups. In all traditional and modern theories of geography, geographical location is one of the most important variables in power formulation and political behavior of countries. Maritime location and access to free waters an element of geographical location, and it is a significant variable in global theories of geopolitics and maritime studies. This dimension of the location of countries has been descriptively studies, and it is essential to determine the geographic location of the countries using qualitative and quantitative indicators. The present study conducted to rank the maritime location of various countries.
Methodology This research is Fundamental in terms of its objective and descriptive-analytic in terms of nature and method, and follows the quantitative research method. The statistics from specialized agencies used to collect the indicator statistics of maritime location of countries in order to consider comprehensiveness, reliability and validity of data from these institutions. Library resources, papers, documents and official portals used to gather the statistics related to the maritime location of the countries. Six indicators were selected for survey from among the indicators related to maritime location of countries. Data analysis was performed using quantitative methods and TOPSIS technique. In this study, maritime location of nations was ranked by TOPSIS algorithm using natural and human indicators with a multivariate and multidimensional approach to maritime location. The indicators were as follows: (1) the ratio of maritime border length to border length of the country; (2) the ratio of country surface area to maritime border length; (3) number of surrounding seas; (4) number of sea ports; (5) The ratio of area of maritime zones (territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone, and continental shelf) to the area of country; (6) ratio of coastal population to total population of the country.
Result and Discussion The research findings indicate that offshore countries with different levels of size, shape, population, etc. placed in this ranking. By using the comparable indicators for countries (by considering the ratio), small insular states were at the top of maritime location, but they were not capable of taking advantage of their maritime location due to the absence of other variables, including vaster territorial extent, qualified manpower (qualitative and quantitative), limited political relations, etc. In contrast, countries with a long maritime border, extended territory, proper coastal kerfs and skilled manpower are able to make good use of their offshore location.
Conclusion Maritime location of countries affects in political behavior and status of countries, and its function depends on other elements of national power. Access to open waters enables maritime contact and relationship between countries for trade, exchange of goods and even ideas. In practice, it is observed that classical and modern naval powers have a sea coast almost without excep.