what is the difference between a natural and polital boundary?

Answer 1

Natural are the ones created by nature for example rivers, oceans, desserts, lakes, mountains. and political the ones delimited by law

Answer 2

The state of Idaho would be a very good example. On the east, near Yellowstone Park, a sliver of the state is within the park (political), an eastern border follows the divide of a mountain range north (a divide is a natural boundary where a rain drop either travels east or west, etc.), a part of the western border is a river (and valley) between very tall (mile high) natural mountain ranges, there are six straight (political) borders with adjacent states and the north (political) border is with Canada another country. The southern border (political) even crosses Bear Lake. All Idaho lacks is ocean front property (where international waters would usually begin three miles out not counting fishing rights).

Answer 3

A natural boundry is some feature of the landscape that defines where the border between two states or countries lie.

An example is a river. In the United States, the southern boundary of the state of Ohio is the Ohio River. (Rivers are very popular for boundaries since they are long, relatively thin compared to the entire state, and they are obvious.)

A political boundary is just a line on a map that was drawn when the area was surveyed and mapped out. An example is the US state of Wyoming. It is pretty close to perfectly square, and the borders correspond to no natural features.

There are advantages and disadvantges to both a political and natural boundary. Natural boundaries are easier to police, for example, since there is no confusion as to where one state ends and another begins. This is not true of political boundaries, since there is no obvious point of reference to tell you when you have left one jurisdiction and enetred another unless the government has built a fence of some kind.

The advantage to political boundaries is that they are fixed, something that is not true of natural boundaries. Rivers will, over time, change their course due to erosion. Rivers with alluvial banks (ie: mud sides) will change their course every time there is a flood. This can be confusing to the people who live near the river. "Am I a citizen of Ohio or Kentucky after that last great flood?"

This isn't something that is surprising or unanticipated. The link below leads to an excerpt from the book "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain, originally published in 1883. In the short one page excerpt, Twain discusses how the Mississippi River will change it's course by a margin of miles after a big flood, causing consternation to those who live anywhere near the mighty waterway.

James

Answer 4

natural is some kind of natural obstacle: a river, a lake, a chain of mountains.

political is what has been agreed to by the governments of the neighbouring coutries.

often the political and the geographical will me the same, or nearly the same (alpine countries such as Switzerland, France, Italy, typically meet at the top of the major peaks; many country or state borders follow rivers).

but where there aren't good natural borders, then political borders have to be made up. And, of course, that's generally when trouble brews, because it's so easy to just happen to wander off by a couple dozen miles where there are no visible marks...

Answer 5

I guess you mean 'political'. Okay, political boundaries are artificial and often arbitrary ways of defining territory, like for example some US states were just basically drawn out with straight lines, if you like. (EDIT: 'Arbitrary' in this case just means that someone decided that this was where the boundary should be, with no regard for whoever was living in the region and what they saw as their territory.END EDIT.) I think from memory that Montana and North Dakota are fair examples. Natural boundaries are often things like rivers, coastline, and mountain ranges -- places or natural objects or features that require a bit of effort to cross -- or that used to before modern technology like aeroplanes, for example. A fair example would be the Rio Grande.

Answer 6

A Political boundary is man-made, a natural occurring boundary can be for example, a river, mountains, valley etc.

Answer 7

This is arguable there are in fact more potential answers to the question

Answer 8

Nothing

Answer 9

Was wondering this as well