A method and system for organizing and storing map data that facilitates
use of the map data by navigation application programs such as those in
navigation systems. The map data represent geographic features located in
a region. The map data are organized into parcels such that each parcel
contains a portion of the map data. The map data contained in each parcel
represent those geographic features contained in a corresponding separate
one of a plurality of rectangular areas located in the region. Each
rectangular area has a uniform dimension in a first coordinate direction
but has a dimension in the other coordinate direction such that the map
data that represent the geographic features contained in the rectangular
area are close to, but do not exceed, a maximum data size for a parcel.
