Space Allocation of Educational Centers Using Multiplicatively Weighted Voronoi Diagram

The main problem of educational centers in a mega city like Tehran, capital of Iran, is that no enforced service areas exist to guide school selection or allow students to make the most convenient commutes to the nearest schools. Without the defined school service areas, parents seeking better and more reputable schools often have no choice but to send children to schools outside the local area. Parental-based system of schools selection has resulted in commutes that are longer than necessary for the students. In order to reduce the time and distance of commutes to school, in this paper, a way to eliminate arbitrary choices and to create school service areas that allocate students to the closest possible public schools is proposed. In such cases education boards delimit a service area for schools in accordance with a number of criteria that includes not only the proximity of student residences, but also the size of schools and safe access to school. Ordinary Voronoi diagram and multiplicatively weighted Voronoi diagram are used in this research for space allocation of educational centers. Ordinary Voronoi diagram is used to create school service areas that allocate students to the closest possible public schools. Multiplicatively weighted Voronoi diagram considers the size of schools beside proximity. It is concluded that through the introduction of school service areas based on the multiplicatively weighted Voronoi diagram method, it would be possible to make walking commute shorter, more convenient and safe.