Calculating the area required for social distancing - not as easy as it seems...

The IPM research team at Manchester Metropolitan have worked with colleagues at Cardiff University to establish the lower bounds of area required to social distance across common town centre environments. 

It seemed quite a straight forward problem. If retailers, shopping centre managers, market managers and place managers have to manage social distancing in their environments, then being able to work out just how many people can fit into a space and socially distance becomes an integral part of that responsibility.

Government guidance expects that capacity is managed - but apart from setting the physical distance for social distancing at 2m, there is no further information. Understandably, businesses and property owners are reluctant to have very prescriptive guidance - but when representatives of retailers (large and small), shopping centres and town centres started asking how to work capacity out, we thought we could help.

As a result, IPM has now published a working paper, that identifies the minimum areas individuals need to social distance in both static space (where people are standing still, e.g. queuing) and dynamic space (where people need to move about). This is a calculation showing the lower bound, that is, the minimum possible area needed but in practice, however, more space might be needed depending on the nature, organisation and management of the available space. 

The table at the bottom of this article shows these lower bounds in various retail environments, and includes alternative social distance measures (should government guidance change).

To explain how these areas have been calculated, Professor Cathy Parker, one of the study's authors, has recorded a short slidecast (see below). As well as explaining the method to IPM members, the slide cast also helps readers of The Guardian understand the maths behind the approach. The Guardian covered the working paper but, unfortunately, left out some important details when producing their explanatory graphics. This upset a lot of maths teachers!

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IPM

Formed in 2006, the Institute of Place Management is the international professional body that supports people committed to developing, managing and making places better.