Spatial Index for Locating Geographic Data Parcels Stored on Physical Storage Media

A spatial index for locating geographic data parcels stored on physical storage media is disclosed. A geographic database for advanced driver assistance systems is subdivided based on a grid of fixed size tiles that span the entire globe. Each tile is assigned a tile identification. The geographic database is organized as a collection of parcels, each of which contains the data for one or more tiles. To locate a parcel on the physical storage media, a spatial index uses the tile identification. Because the tiles are not uniformly filled with data, the spatial index is organized as a sparse array.