Population redistribution within finite geographical locations using intersections of Voronoi layers

Abstract

A carefully planned and pre-determined evacuation procedure is a crucial component for the overall safety of a populace, especially in highly dense metropolitan areas. With this in mind, we utilize Voronoi polygons in estimating a spatial population distribution dataset for four cities in Metro Manila, namely Quezon City, Makati, Mandaluyong and San Juan. The Voronoi polygons are created from the centroids of buildings obtained from satellite data, and assigns a population fraction for each cell based on a decaying power law relation with the cell's area. The calculated population is then distributed to different evacuation centers, here denoted by the public school locations, using an intersect spatial relation. Our analysis reveals that the intersect-distributed population is non-trivial and that it is best described by a power law probability distribution.