1. A method of generating digital representations of geographic regional shapes for creating informational overlays from associated data that match the geographic regional shapes to render on a map on a display screen, comprising: selecting an area of a map that includes one or more geographic regions for rendering by a processor on a display screen; downloading map data corresponding to map features appearing within said area of said map; collecting from said map data a pattern of vertices of intersecting map features; generating one or more regional shapes that respectively enclose the one or more geographic regions on the display screen based on the pattern of vertices; and transmitting data sets corresponding to the one or more regional shapes to a processor based device programmed to present information associated with the one or more geographic regions to a user by rendering said map area on a display screen with said presented information overlayed within said one or more geographic regions.