Often when one thinks of interweaving the abstract and the applied, the abstract is discarded if it does not meet the test of application. There is asymmetry in considering the merits these two different approaches have to offer. From a practical and applied standpoint, one must, at some level, confine laws to geographically defined and confined regions. Often, however, natural features, educational concerns, and other far-flung notions transcend political boundaries. The geographic literature, newspapers, and other sources are filled with example.
Natural watercourses overlain with political boundaries at the county and state levels.
Base map from Atlas GIS, v. 3.0.3 with hydrological layers superimposed from the Digital Chart of the World. Developers and municipal authorities often care how new development will affect an adjacent neighbor. The fit is bad. Here, perhaps, the abstract idea of using the drainage basin as a fundamental unit should take the lead and laws of units more local than a drainage basin made to fit within the basin a case in which the abstract guides the applied. The Route 12 Project approach also has precedent, in the applied realm, in other parts of the world.