[Qgis-user] US county shared boundaries

[Greg Troxel]

chris hermansen via QGIS-User <qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org> writes:

> I'm assuming that there are more than one island in the USA that contains
> more than one county; certainly Long Island incorporates four counties:
> Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Kings.  As well, Queens and Kings are also
> boroughs of New York City.
>
> Given what I understand of Brent's interest, it seems to me that there is a
> kind of "adjacency" relationship between Queens, Kings (Brooklyn) and
> Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond counties, that is, the boroughs of New York
> City.  I don't know if Brent would consider Nassau and Suffolk counties to
> be "adjacent" to Manhattan...
>
> Also there is the question of adjacency across state lines, I suppose...
> For example, Long Island looks pretty adjacent to Connecticut to me.  Does
> that count?

What you are pointing out is that the original problem formulation is
ill-formed and that what people think of as adjacent is cultural and not
easily amenable to automated processing.

I suspect that the NE end of LI feels adjacent to CT -- because there is
a ferry -- but also adjacent to NYC.  I suspect the people in the SW
part see CT as very far away.


The comment about Newport County, RI was interesting.   Yes, parts of it
are technically an island, but culturally it doesn't feel that way.
You just drive from Providence to Newport and yes you go over a bridge,
but it's not really a big deal.   There's no real cultural sense of having
crossed to an island.   In contrast, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket
(MA) are hard to get to and you really feel like you've crossed.

I'm saying this to point out that adjacency isn't as simple as it's
being made out to be.