Planning for classroom physical distancing to minimize the threat of COVID-19 disease spread

The coronavirus disease 2019 is a respiratory illness spread between people. A primary weapon for reducing or eliminating this disease involves physical distancing to thwart transmission. Efforts to keep the economy moving include enacting physical distancing strategies that will increase the safety of workplaces, schools, businesses, etc. Given that education is a critical economic sector that impacts essentially all other sectors in some way, this paper details a planning approach for classroom physical distancing supported by spatial optimization. Devising a configuration of desks and/or workspaces that are physically distant is a type of dispersion problem that can be formalized mathematically and solved. Planning efforts for a university campus serve to illustrate how spatial optimization can support safety enhancements.

[1]  I. Moon,et al.  An Analysis of Network Location Problems with Distance Constraints , 1984 .

[2]  Richard L. Church,et al.  Facets for node packing , 1997 .

[3]  Manfred W. Padberg,et al.  On the facial structure of set packing polyhedra , 1973, Math. Program..

[4]  Richard L. Church,et al.  Addressing risks and uncertainty in forest land use modeling , 2019, J. Geogr. Syst..

[5]  Alan T. Murray,et al.  Sex Offender Residency and Spatial Equity , 2008 .

[6]  Alan T. Murray,et al.  Alcohol beverage control, privatization and the geographic distribution of alcohol outlets , 2012, BMC Public Health.

[7]  M. Kuby.  Programming Models for Facility Dispersion: The p‐Dispersion and Maxisum Dispersion Problems , 2010 .

[8]  Melanie R Taylor,et al.  Perceived coping & concern predict terrorism preparedness in Australia , 2012, BMC Public Health.

[9]  Richard L. Church,et al.  The disruptive anti-covering location problem , 2015, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[10]  Alan T. Murray,et al.  Spatial Optimization in Geography , 2012 .

[11]  Bernard G. Halterman,et al.  Integrating timber and wildlife management planning , 1973 .

[12]  Alan T. Murray,et al.  Estimating carrying capacity for sandhill cranes using habitat suitability and spatial optimization models , 2008 .

[13]  Alan T. Murray,et al.  Location Covering Models , 2018 .

[14]  E. Erkut.  The discrete p-dispersion problem , 1990 .

[15]  Richard L. Church,et al.  Modeling the Potential for Critical Habitat , 2015 .

[16]  Alan T. Murray,et al.  An integrated approach for addressing geographic uncertainty in spatial optimization , 2012, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[17]  Leslie E. Trotter,et al.  Vertex packings: Structural properties and algorithms , 1975, Math. Program..

[18]  Alan T. Murray.  Site placement uncertainty in location analysis , 2003, Comput. Environ. Urban Syst..