Patent ID: 8799292

Claim:
A method of generating an elevation database for selected geographic regions, the method comprising: (a) receiving a location database that includes coordinates of geographical locations of interest, a rule database including rules for determining for which said geographical locations of interest corresponding bounding regions enclosing continuous geographic regions are to be constructed, and an input elevation database, each location in the location database being located within a selected geographic region; (b) for each location in the location database for which, according to said rules from the rule database, a said bounding region enclosing a continuous geographic region is to be constructed: constructing said bounding region; (c) applying elevation data from the input elevation database to each bounding region; and (d) compressing the elevation data in each bounding region to provide compressed elevation data; wherein, upon decompressing the compressed elevation data, each point in each bounding region represents a level of elevation at that point in the associated selected geographic region.