Visual Exploration of (French) Commuter Networks

Commuters induce a network structure on the territory linking cities. Geographers study commuter data trying to understand the structure of the network, as a contribution towards urban planning. Our approach is more specifically designed to help geographers identify multiscale phenomenon, reflecting how the activity occurring at a local scale actually contribute to higher order dynamics. As suggested earlier, flows occurring between nearby suburbs may indeed be seen as local contribution of greater cities taking place at a national scale. Although our visualization and the analytical tools we have designed do not by themselves provide sound answers to these questions, they definitely contribute and help geographers when designing/validating hypothesis.