Social Distance in Schools

In March 2020, like almost everywhere on the world, the Curacao government ordered a full closure of all schools, forcing schools to start organizing distance education overnight for a longer period of time. This drastic measurement triggered the question: can we define a responsible maximum occupancy of school buildings during a pandemic, and how to organize that practically.

In order to execute the research, we contacted Oasys, the software house of Arup, in order to use their “Crowd Simulation Software” including the new (May 2020) Social Distance functionality developed by them. This way we can allow virtual students and teachers to intelligently move around the school based on specific requirements such as a class schedule, one-way traffic and start times, taking Social Distance into account. Processes such as hand disinfection upon arrival at school can also be simulated.

“Simulations show that adjustments to the timetable are way more effective then adjustments to the number of students, meaning more students can be responsibly educated in school by just adapting the timetables.”

In cooperation with a local high school, several simulations were executed using the actual school plan and the actual timetables of the students. Schools have the unique advantage that the users of the building, students and teachers, are “controlled” by the timetable and simulations showed adjustments to a class schedule can therefore also be used to focus on social distancing.

Reference simulations were run with normal capacity (without social distance), and after that parameters for one-way corridors, 33% or 50% of students per class and adapted timetables have been tried out. The researches conclude that within the entire premises of the school for each location, except for the main entrance, less then two minutes social distance violation per day can be reached with 50% filled classes. This is reached by having all classes connected to one specific classroom, while they still leave their classroom to go to practical courses with specific classroom needs. Also all class switches related to elective courses are still possible in this simulation.

slide simulation results yourself to compare different scenarios

In the pictures below the simulation results are displayed as number of seconds on for each location within the school that the social distance (2 meters) is violated. In white area’s no violation is measured, dark blue area’s have a violation of max 2 minutes per school day, running up to red area’s with higher violation duration.

By using the slider, the top scenario (above the slider line) and bottom scenario (below the slider line) can be compared.