Geographic Area
The authoritative data model includes a flexible approach to defining geographic areas suitable for several use cases. The model includes a hierarchy of geographic area nodes that can be used to define geographic areas at various levels of granularity. The geographic area hierarchy includes the following nodes:
| Node | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
GeoArea | A set of countries and region groups built up using the INCLUDES relationship against countries, areas, continents, and region groups | Data node |
Territory | A group of countries, built up using the INCLUDES relationship against countries, that share a common characteristic or are geographically close to each other, e.g, "Middle East", "Scandinavia", "Caribbean" | Category node |
Region | A region is an administrative area, such as a state or province | Category node |
Country | A country | Category node |
Continent | A continent | Category node |
High level visualization of the geo area hierarchy
Below is a visual representation of GeoArea used at a country level. In this example, the :Territory node called "Nordics" (as defined by the DMO) is a collection of the countries Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. Together, these four countries plus the independently connected country of Mexico will form this :GeoArea.
The :GeoArea node can also be used to construct geographies at smaller levels, such as the region-based example below:
Using Territories with GeoArea
Within Auth Data, :GeoArea is constructed with INCLUDES relationships to individual regions, countries, and continents. In use with :Representation nodes, for example, this means that a client represented by UTA "worldwide except the UK" will have a :GeoArea with INCLUDES relationships linked to every individual country except "United Kingdom". To assist the DMO in creating so many relationships, we can use a :Territory node as a pre-defined grouping of countries to more quickly and easily attach to a :GeoArea.