gminawithin

Gminawithin is a term used in geographic information systems and administrative data models to describe the spatial relationship whereby a gmina, the basic unit of territorial division in Poland, is contained within another geographic or administrative boundary. The construction reflects a “gmina within” relationship rather than a simple boundary; it is commonly implemented as a data attribute or predicate in GIS software and database schemas, often rendered as gmina_within in code or metadata.

In practice, gminawithin may denote that a specified gmina lies entirely inside a larger unit such as a powiat (county) or voivodeship (province), or it can express nested hierarchies in multi-scale mapping. It is typically used to support queries like “find all gminas within a given county” or to facilitate map styling and aggregation by higher-level regions.

Because administrative borders can change, gminawithin representations should be synchronized with authoritative boundary datasets from national or regional authorities. The term is a generic label rather than an official administrative category, and its exact meaning can vary by dataset or software convention.

Related concepts include the gmina itself, powiat, and voivodeship, as well as spatial predicates such as within, contains, intersects, and touches in GIS. While it is most common in Polish geospatial data contexts, the underlying idea of a containment relationship is universal in geographic data modeling.