A locality, under the concept of geographic division, is what a population nucleus with its own identity is called. Whether it is a large urban nucleus or a small village, it is a population group that is the consequence of a territorial division.
The localities can be urban or rural. It may be a political entity, jurisdiction or municipality, since the definition varies depending on the area.
For example, in Mexico a locality can be considered as a synonym for city, municipality or neighborhood, while in Argentina the term is used exclusively for rural areas.
The official definition for locality, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography of Mexico is: «any occupied place with one or more dwellings, which may or may not be inhabited; this place is recognized by a name given by law or custom ».
In Colombia the term locality is also used to denote administrative divisions.
Colombian localities have local mayors appointed by the mayor, and they coordinate administrative actions in conjunction with the district government.
Other meanings
Locality principle
In physics there is the principle of locality, which states that two objects that are sufficiently far apart cannot affect each other instantly, because each object can only be influenced by its immediate surroundings.
Albert Einstein defined this phenomenon in what he called the "local action principle" of field theory, arguing that semi-closed systems depend on the locality principle.
Otherwise, the universe would be a single essence because one atom could interact with another even if it was on the other side of the universe.
In computing
The locality principle applied to computer systems is a phenomenon in which it is possible to predict with some precision which instructions and data a program will use in the near future.
The prediction is made based on the frequency with which a memory location is referenced.
If certain information were stored in a memory at a certain time, it could be predicted that the information will be referenced in the near future, especially if adjacent locations have already been referenced.
The locality in computing is classified as temporal, spatial and sequential, and they differ from each other by the frequency and the moment in which these locations are referenced.
The temporal location indicates that if it was referenced recently, it is possible that it will be referenced again in the near future.
The spatial location says that the locations adjacent to a location will be referenced soon.
For its part, the sequential location establishes that in case the memory addresses are contiguous, they will be referenced in the order of the sequence.
In any of the cases, regardless of the location, there are high probabilities of correcting the prediction, since memory locations tend to be allocated by processes that will eventually need that information.
References
- Wikipedia - Locality Principle: es.wikipedia.org
- Definition ABC - Locality: definicionabc.com
- National Institute of Statistics and Geography: inegi.org.mx
- Redindustria - The principle of locality: redindustria.blogspot.com
- Encyclopedia - Reference location: encyclopedia.us.es
- Wikipedia - Closeness of references: en.wikipedia.org