Compartmentalization or compartmentalisation (UK) refers to an action or process of organising iverse populations into discrete groups, or "compartments" —each of which has the properties of boundary and isolation, but also has some limited or controlled relation with other parts. The term refers to the concept of organised and related grouping as an abstract process, which can be activated intrinsically (ie. by self-determination, biological process; Compartmentalization in biology) or extrinsically (ie. by direction).