boundary

n., pl., -ries.

1. Something that indicates a border or limit.
2. The border or limit so indicated.

Same as Property Line.

noun

The line or area separating geopolitical units: border, borderland, frontier, march, marchland. See edge/center, territory.

n

Definition: outer limit
Antonyms: inside, interior, minimum

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A line marking the limits of a spatial unit, having the power to include or exclude. While the terms ‘border’ and ‘boundary’ are used as synonyms in current English, it has been argued (A. P. Cohen, 1994) that a boundary necessarily demands a perception of some cultural, political or social feature that signifies difference, and distinguishes one spatial area from another, for example, a ghetto.

A distinction is made between antecedent boundaries which demarcate territories before they are settled, like the 49th parallel between the USA and Canada, or before they have been colonized, as in the case of many of the African boundaries established by the colonial powers at the Congress of Berlin in 1884, and subsequent boundaries which evolve together with the society they encompass. See border, frontier.

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

Natural or artificial separations or divisions between adjoining properties to show their limits.

Boundaries are used to establish private and public ownership by determining the exact location of the points at which one piece of land is distinguishable from another. They are also used to mark the functional and jurisdictional limits of political subdivisions. For example, in the United States, boundaries are used to define villages, towns, cities, counties, and states.

The setting of boundaries is a characteristic of the modern era of history during which centralized states emerged that required both protection against attacks and definition of their populations. Historically, natural objects such as rivers and mountains served this purpose. Accurate determination of boundaries requires surveying and cartography, which were not widely utilized until the early nineteenth century. But even in the late twentieth century, with scientific information methods available, mapmakers occasionally are forced to turn to ancient landmarks and memories when attempting to set boundaries. For example, for centuries the borders within the Arabian peninsula had been loosely defined by tribes' grazing patterns. Following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and subsequent defeat in 1991, United Nations mapmakers attempted to determine the exact border between Iraq and Kuwait. The United Nations enlisted the help of British border expert Julian Walker, who sought out elderly guides who could describe the locations of landmarks referred to in earlier records and provide a starting place for demarcation of the border.

Boundary disputes can last for centuries, undermining efforts to end long-standing animosities. In May 1994, at the signing of the historic self-rule accord for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, the chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Yasir Arafat, suddenly refused to sign six maps appended to the agreement. After much discussion with his advisers, Arafat added an Arabic disclaimer to the maps which made the point that the boundaries of the ancient West Bank town of Jericho were still in dispute, and signed the accord.

Several types of maritime boundaries exist, such as the territorial sea, which is a belt of coastal waters — controlled by the adjacent state and subject to rights such as those of foreign ships to passage — whose boundary is a line measured three miles from the low-water mark along the shore; contiguous zones, which extend beyond the territorial sea to a maximum of twelve miles, within which the controlling state may act to prevent or punish violations of its regulations; and a two-hundred-mile exclusive economic zone, subject to a nation's rights of exploration, exploitation, conservation, and management of marine life, which was authorized by the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea.

Marine boundaries provide fertile ground for international conflict. In June 1990, the United States and the Soviet Union signed an agreement resolving a sixteen-hundred-mile-long maritime boundary dispute that began in 1977. The area at issue, some twenty-one thousand square nautical miles, contained valuable fishing grounds and possible oil and gas fields. The conflict had its origins in 1867, when czarist Russia sold Alaska to the United States. It was not until more than one hundred years later, while establishing their respective two-hundred-mile fisheries zones off the coasts of Alaska and Siberia in the Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, and Arctic Ocean, that the two countries realized they had each set a different boundary for Alaska.

Even marine boundaries that have been widely accepted for years can be suddenly ignored. For example, in March 1995, Canada seized a Spanish trawler fishing for halibut in international waters just beyond Canada's two-hundred-mile boundary. Foreign Affairs Minister Andre Ouellet, of Canada, claimed that a catastrophic decline in fishing stock in recent years gave Canada moral authority to extend its jurisdiction beyond the internationally recognized two-hundred-mile maritime limit.

Boundaries in inland waters, such as the Canadian-U.S. boundary through the Great Lakes, follow a median line equidistant from the opposite shores. Boundaries in navigable rivers are set at the middle of the thalweg, which is the deepest or most navigable channel, as distinguished from the geographic center or a line midway between the banks (United States v. Louisiana, 470 U.S. 93, 105 S. Ct. 1074, 84 L. Ed. 2d 73 [1985]). As the thalweg shifts owing to the accumulation of sediment in the river, the geographic boundary also shifts. The island exception to the rule of thalweg provides that if there is a divided river flow around an island, a boundary once established on one side of the island remains there, even if the main downstream navigation channel shifts to the island's other side (Louisiana v. Mississippi, ___U.S.___, 116 S. Ct. 290, 133 L. Ed. 2d 265 [1995]).

Some observers believe that the traditional role of boundaries as buffer regions protecting the national security of nations began to change in the 1950s. Lawrence Herzog, professor of Mexican-American studies at San Diego State University, described the evolution of large-scale cities along the borders of nations, which he called transfrontier metropolises, that share ecological resources such as water and environmental problems such as sewage control and air pollution. Traditionally, divergent laws and customs in boundary areas have discouraged economic development by interfering with the movement of labor and commodities across borders. But with the emergence of two important world regions — Western Europe and the United States-Mexico border zone — economic development in cities along borders has become intertwined.

According to Herzog, such border urbanization has generated legal and political concerns not previously addressed by international law. The emerging need for transborder cooperation in the areas of transportation, land use, and environmental regulation requires the development of new planning and policy guidelines that address the changing role of boundaries.

See: Fish and Fishing; International Waterways; Territorial Waters.

(DOD) A line that delineates surface areas for the purpose of facilitating coordination and deconfliction of operations between adjacent units, formations, or areas. See also airspace control boundary.

A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce

n.

In political geography, an imaginary line between two nations, separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of the other.

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IN BRIEF: A line or thing that marks the outside edge or limit.

The city boundary was three miles away from city hall.

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Common misspelling(s) of boundary

• bondary
• boundry

Dansk (Danish)
n. - grænse, begrænsning

Nederlands (Dutch)
grens

Français (French)
n. - limite, frontière

Deutsch (German)
n. - Grenze

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - όριο, σύνορο, διαχωριστική γραμμή

Italiano (Italian)
confine

Português (Portuguese)
n. - fronteira (f), limite (m)

Русский (Russian)
граница, рубеж, предел

Español (Spanish)
n. - frontera, límite

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - gränslinje, gränsboll (kricket)

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
边界, 分界线, 界限, 范围

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 邊界, 分界線, 界限, 範圍

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 경계

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 境界, 限界

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) حد فاصل‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮תחום, גבול‬

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