Presented at AURISA 2001 - The 29 th Annual Conference of AURISA Grand Hyatt, Melbourne, VIC, 19-23 November 2001 Developing a theoretical framework for the delineation of administrative boundaries within a rural context Serryn Eagleson 1 , Francisco Escobar 2 , Ian Williamson 3 1 PhD Candidate The University of Melbourne Victoria 3010 Australia Email: serryn@sunrise.sli.unimelb.edu.au 2 Senior Lecturer RMIT University GPO Box 2476V Melbourne Victoria 3001 Australia Email: francisco.escobar@rmit.edu.au 3 Professor of Surveying and Land Information The University of Melbourne Victoria 3010 Australia Email: ianpw@unimelb.edu.au ABSTRACT One of the major problems limiting the integration, comparison and transfer of data within Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) worldwide is the current arrangement of administrative boundaries. Many of these boundaries have been created by individual agencies to meet their own specific needs with very little coordination. Due to this lack of co- ordination, current technologies for analysing geospatial information, such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), cannot provide accurate results. As a result, there is a fragmentation of information over a series of boundary units. This fragmentation of information not only limits the potential uses for data collected but also the potential scope of GIS analysis possible between boundary layers. This paper forms part of an ongoing research project. To date the issue of structuring metropolitan boundaries has been addressed and widely published. In contrast, this paper focuses on providing a theoretical framework for improving the structure of administrative boundaries within the rural environment. KEYWORDS: Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Administrative Units, Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), Hierarchical Spatial Reasoning (HSR) INTRODUCTION Administrative boundaries are frequently used for the display and analysis of information related to the earth. Health, wealth and population distributions are all examples of spatial information commonly attached to administrative polygons. In fact there are few areas of the economy and environment, which