1. A method for representing geographic features in a computer-based system, comprising: providing a first computer-usable database storing a plurality of data points specifying latitude and longitude coordinates of locations along at least one geographic feature; fitting a polynomial spline to the at least one geographic feature by applying a least squares approximation to the data points specifying latitude and longitude coordinates to generate a plurality of control points for the polynomial spline; and storing the control points in a second computer-usable database, the control points being usable for representing the geometry of the at least one geographic feature in the computer-based system.