On the Ontological Status of Geographical Boundaries

Antony Galton

In Matt Duckham, Michael F. Goodchild and Michael F. Worboys (eds.), Foundations of Geographic Information Science, Taylor and Francis, 2003, pages 151-171. ISBN 0-415-30726-0.

Originally presented as a paper at a specialist meeting on Fundamental Questions in Geographical Information Science (`The I in GI Science') held in Manchester in July 2001.

Section headings

• Introduction
• Classification of boundaries
  • Physical boundaries
  • Institutional boundaries
• Dependencies amongst boundary types
  • Institutional boundaries arising from physical boundaries
  • Physical boundaries arising from other physical boundaries
  • Physical boundaries arising from institutional boundaries
• Some key attributes of boundaries
  • Dimension
  • Valency
  • Determinacy
• Representation of boundaries
• Conclusions