…living centers are often--nearly always--formed and strengthened by boundaries…The purpose of a boundary which surrounds a center is two-fold. First, it focuses attention on the center and thus helps to produce the center. It does this by forming the field of force which creates and intensifies the center which is bounded. Second, it unites the center which is being bounded with the world beyond the boundary (p 158-9).
Given that location has been selected as the critical differentiating characteristic of inclusion or non-inclusion in a spatial distribution, it must be evident that the first concept that can be derived is that of a boundary. A boundary identifies that segment of the global environment that contains a particular spatial distribution. It is obvious that boundaries can be defined with varying levels of precision and can be more or less real or artificial. For example, once the member set of a spatial distribution is identified, it can be represented by a closed boundary or polygon (p.
Two questions arise in boundary considerations. First, how may the boundaries be defined, and second, what influence do the boundaries have on other activities and phenomena? (p. 41)
A discontinuity, surface (q.v.) or partition (more or less abrupt) that separates portions of organisms, structures, systems, or the environment, and where properties differ significantly across the interface; e.g. the surface of the ocean or the mitochondrial membrane. Transport of materials and energy across boundaries are crucial processes in nature and technology.
