Country correction

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Revision as of 08:42, 1 March 2021 by Aleene (talk | contribs) (Extending country size calculations)
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This page explores how the size of the country can be taken into account in the determination of the eco-score transport bonus.

Bonus approach

The eco-score approach intends to give a bonus to locally produced (and purchased) products. This bonus is +15, which is equal to a transport score of 100. This bonus is however now given to any product produced/purchased in France. No account has been taken of the very large size of France and impact of transport within the country.

Can this approach be adapted, so that the size of a country is taken into account?

Maximum bonus

It would be logic to give the maximum bonus (transport score if 100) only to very locally production and purchase. Ideally this will imply an area as small as possible, i.e. a city or very small country. Production and purchase that occurs in a country such as Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein or San Marino could be viewed as having a transportation score of 100.

No bonus

In the current calculation the no bonus (transportation score 0) is (arbitrarily) set at a distance of 2000 km. This distance covers roughly the size of Europe.

Centroids to the rescue

Is it possible to use the centroid calculations in determining the (transportation) size of a country?

The weighted sum for a country that consists of single city will be zero. This can then correspond to a transportation (bonus) score of 100. This means it is preferred to have no transportation.

The weighted sum of the major cities in the European Union (or larger area) could be used to define the transportation score of 0. This means a maximum transportation impact.

From Any weighted sum in between it is now possible to calculate a country transportation score. The larger the country, the lower the country transportation score. This country transportation score can be used to determine the maximum bonus for a country.

The centroid approach can also be used to calculate the country transportation size. We just have to add all cities, so that the entire population is covered. The resulting weighted distance is the size we are looking for.

Practice