Seeing Regions - Many can be defined! The first task for a leader or problem solver is to find the regional geography that has consequence for their program. If we look at the earth from above, such as  the below picture of the Mid-Atlantic United States, what boundaries can be seen? U.S. Mid-Atlantic Region - Can you make out states, counties, cities? With the exception of the Potomac River separating part of Maryland and Virginia, no governmental boundaries are visitble. What do maps show? Roads, state boundaries, cities, towns and crossroads. Are county boundaries important? Not for road map purposes.The same is true for municipal boundaries. When you are on the road, county and municipal boundaries are noted with roadside signs when you pass from one jurisdiction to another. Why? These are boundaries of consequence. Some rules are different depending upon the political jurisdiction. Still, in the U.S., rules are generally the same across the nation in order to facilitate free trade and travel. From our local home, the political boundaries in which we live, we travel freely through out the neighboring jurisdictions - our local region, and the greater country. Regions contain multiple governments. They may be organized as political subdivisions within their state or by compact if multi-state. Other regional alignments may be just lines on a map - boundaries of conveniece for an organization, group or business. The map below shows the road network that takes people and goods from place to place. Little of the road network can be seen from perspective of the first picture. Mid-Atlantic roads mapped - This a larger geography than the photo. The map displays relationships within the territory. Boundaries of consequence with the U.S. are those of local and state governments. You have some sense of them as you drive down the road and see the markers. A jurisdiction might have a reputation as a speed trap, so you drive more carefully, or as quaint, so you check the scenery. In most cases, with the exception of the locality in which we live, there's not much of an idea of boundaries, though we may know places - towns or cities, or destinations - like restarants, recreation c areas or shopping centers. Boundaries of consequence: Counties, Cities, States - and Regional Councils Maps are required to help us see the relationships among localities, states and nations, and to help us navigate beyond our home territory that we experience and learn to know. Landmarks, road names, addresses and local maps give us a sense of the relationships. Once they are understood, travel can be relatively easy, providing we have the resources. We can send and receive communication, goods and services across the territories, thanks to the governance framework that provides safe passage. This is all a product of human communities. Isn't the traditional U.S. governmental structure - local government, state and Federal enough to manage it all? 1. Leaders and problem solvers, public and private, are continually challenged to frame their markets and locate appropriate data to support their planning and management activities. 2. Federal and State agencies are the most common source of public data. 3. Regional alignments are invisible. Map 1 shows the natural world, boundaryless from space. Map 2 is the typical highway road map which shows roads and places, city or town, with State boundaries, but without County and Regional Boundaries. Map 3 makes the Counties and Northern Shenandoah Valley region visible. 4. Data is available alphabetically by state, county, municipality or place. The data is not available by region unless compiled that way. A FIPS code for regions would accomplish that. See the FIPS Code tab.   5. When it comes to regional, there are many alignments which make it confusing for local officals working from the inside out of their particular center of the world. Businesses often deal with a radius from their location, but the average small business or organization can not effectively compile data beyond that which is directly available from Census publications on a single jurisdiction basis, unless they are in a metropolitan statistical area.   6. The Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission produces such data through its Map, Data and GIS center program. Organizations in the Northern Shenandoah Valley benefit from cross-organization cooperation which is effectively a "Regional Public Corporate Database" which serves many communities. 7. This strengthens community ties, enhances public access to information, and add to the strategic advantages of the Northern Shenandoah Valley's I-81/I-66 Corridor/Mid-Atlantic location. State agency datasets are compiled by the Planning District regions, but Federal data and that of adjoining states is not. This is a barrier to knowledge.