Euro Coins Diffusion

French INED and CNRS created the Euro Spatial Diffusion Observatory to realize a set of studies on the spatial and social diffusion of the Euro in the “Euro Zone” countries. The diffusion of the Euro is the occasion to observe the movements and links among the different european regions.

Surveys of the wallet of 2000 french people are performed every three months. The origin of the coins are collected with the people residential location and the social features. The combined analysis of the social and spatial diffusion of the coins bring helpful empirical data for social networking, integration, exclusion, and internationalization phenomenon. The same data also allow to validate theoretical models of socio spatial diffusion.

Due to the strong discontinuity of Euro propagation (due to the elapsed time between surveys and the amount of surveys performed – influencing the data timeliness and data quality), the maps produced contain a certain amount of uncertainty. Without some gaussian smoothing (value at one point, corresponds to the average of the neighbors) that blurs a bit the reality, the maps would give the impression of brutal changes between regions. Moreover, a dynamic map showing the diffusion of the coins over time, allows to reduce the errors and provide a better big picture of the main movements and propagation (at the borders and during the holidays).

Relation to my thesis: Tracking things can generate valuable socio-spatial information (spatial analysis and modeling of phenomenon of spatial interaction, impact of physical or political borders). Timeliness and quality of the gathered spatial information are taken into account to present the spatial data (use of gaussian smoothing and map animation)