Math in… School Districts

To help remove bias from school zoning, Melbourne created a Voronoi diagram of its schools. A cell was drawn around each school so that the residences in each cell were closer to that cell’s school than any other schools, as the crow flies. Students are guaranteed access to the school in their Voronoi cell, making education more accessible.

In 1854 there was a cholera outbreak in London. Dr. John Snow created a map of water pumps and drew a Voronoi cell around a water pump he suspected was contaminated. (The cell is a little jagged because distance was based on how people navigated the city streets.) Since most of the casualties were in that cell, Snow’s map helped make the case for disabling that water pump, saving lives.

What other problems could Voronoi diagrams be used to solve?