Patent ID: 7619913

Claim:
An apparatus for managing area data, comprising: a first storage for area data; a second storage for area data; a storage for data associated with an area; and a storage for region data, wherein: the first storage for area data stores one or more first data structures for area management; the first data structure for area management includes: a first index data structure including a first root node corresponding to a first set of areas containing a first area, first non-leaf nodes, and first leaf nodes; and a first data storage corresponding to the first leaf nodes; the second storage for area data stores one or more second data structures for area management constructed on the basis of area data collected from data in the first storage for area data based on one or more area attributes designated by a user; the second data structure for area management includes: a second index data structure including a second root node corresponding to a second set of areas containing second areas collected based on the one or more area attributes designated, second non-leaf nodes, and second leaf nodes; and a second data storage corresponding to the second leaf nodes; the storage for data associated with an area stores data associated with an area corresponding to the first areas and the second areas; the storage for region data stores a data structure for region management that is constructed on the basis of a node associated with a region which contains at least one or more of the first sets of areas; and the data structure for region management includes a data structure in which at least one node for identifying the region links to either the first root node or the second root node.