Voronoi diagrams allow the subdivision of a set of coverage areas in order to establish proximity relations. Several studies have been conducted to determine coverage areas by using Voronoi diagrams. However, it is still necessary to undertake further research with the development of new proposals objecting the determination of coverage areas which take into account the real topography of cities. This will require obstacles consideration, i.e., linear as well as closed barriers. According to the literature, there are no studies that have advanced in that direction, which emphasizes the importance of this research. This paper proposes to determine coverage areas by using the Voronoi diagram considering linear and closed barriers simultaneously. A computational implementation of ordinary and power Voronoi diagrams considering obstacles was performed. Spatial analyses were conducted from ordinary and power Voronoi diagrams establishing proximity relationships between competitor banks. From the results, it was found that the inclusion of barriers noticeably change the boundaries of Voronoi diagrams and that the proposed method avoids incorrect conclusions, since the coverage areas determined considering linear and closed barriers indeed approached the real topography of cities.
Location; Voronoi Diagram; Coverage Areas; Bank Agencies
