Geography Hierarchy

Once the geography structure is defined, the geographies for each geography type can be added to the hierarchy. For example, in the hierarchy of United States you can create a geography called California using a State geography type.

As part of managing the geography hierarchy you can view, create, edit, and delete the geographies for each geography type in the country structure. You can also add a primary and alternate name and code for each geography. A geography hierarchy can be created using the Manage Geographies task, or can be imported using tasks in the Define Geographies activity.

Geography hierarchy is a data model that creates conceptual parent-child relationships between geographies.

The application uses geography hierarchy information to facilitate business processes that rely on geography information, such as, tax calculation, order sourcing rules, and sales territory definition. The geography hierarchy information is centrally located and shared among other application offerings.

The geography hierarchy includes geography, geography type, geography usage, master reference geography hierarchy and user defined zones.

If you delete a geography level, all the children in that geography hierarchy are also deleted. For example, under a state you have defined zones using a range of postal codes. Later, you delete the state because you no longer support that state in your business. All the zones defined within that state are also deleted.