# Inch CI

A GeographicArea is a gazeteer entry for some political subdivision. GeographicAreas are presently
limited to second level subdivisions (e.g. counties in the United States) or higher (i.e. state/country)
* "Levels" are non-normalized values for convenience.

There are multiple hierarchies stored in GeographicArea (e.g. TDWG, GADM2).  Only when those
name "lineages" completely match are they merged.

@!attribute name
  @return [String]
  The name of the geographic area

@!attribute level0_id
  @return [Integer]
  The id of the GeographicArea *country* that this geographic area belongs to, self.id if self is a country

@!attribute level1_id
  @return [Integer]
  The id of the first level subdivision (starting from country) that this geographic area belongs to, self if self is a first level subdivision

@!attribute level2_id
  @return [Integer]
  The id of the second level subdivision (starting from country) that this geographic area belongs to, self if self is a second level subdivision

@!attribute parent_id
  @return [Integer]
  The id of the parent of this geographic area, will never be self, may be null (for Earth). Generally, sovereign countries have 'Earth' as parent.

@!attribute geographic_area_type_id
  @return [Integer]
  The id of the type of this geographic area, index of geographic_area_types

@!attribute iso_3166_a2
  @return [String]
  Two alpha-character identification of country.

@!attribute iso_3166_a3
  @return [String]
  Three alpha-character identification of country.

@!attribute tdwgID
  @return [String]
  If derived from the TDWG hierarchy the tdwgID.  Should be accessed through self#tdwg_ids, not directly.

@!attribute data_origin
  @return [String]
  Text describing the source of the data used for creation (TDWG, GADM, NaturalEarth, etc.).