Patent ID: 8510295

Claim:
A method for managing resource storage for multi-resolution imagery data with zoom level in a distributed geographic information system having a plurality of data centers, comprising: selecting an image tile representing a portion of the multi-resolution imagery data at a zoom level; determining an aggregated user happiness contribution for the selected image tile based on one or more criteria including: popularity of the image tile, geographical information associated with the image tile, a point of interest of the image tile, an access pattern of the image tile, advertisement information associated with the image tile, a user annotation of the image tile, and a zoom level of the image tile; determining one or more resource storage parameters for the image tile based on the calculated aggregated user happiness contribution, wherein the resource storage parameters include one or more of the following: a number of copies to be replicated for the image tile, a number of data centers in the distributed geographic information system to store the copies of the image tile, a location of a data center where a copy of the image tile will be stored, a number of data severs in the data center where a copy of the image tile will be stored, and a compression algorithm for storing one or more copies of the image tile; and replicating and storing the image tile in one or more of the data centers in the distributed geographic information system based on the determined resource storage parameters.