1. A computer-implemented method for performing wavelet-based compression of data representing a manifold, said method comprising: identifying a function representing data defined upon an M-dimensional manifold, the manifold being embedded in N-dimensional space where M and N are integers and N is greater than M; identifying a geometric base used to model the manifold; calculating wavelets coefficients for the function using a cell subdivision scheme for subdividing the geometric base thereby producing a refined mesh of cells, the wavelet coefficients being associated with said cells within the refined mesh; creating a tree representation of said mesh in which each node of the tree represents a cell of said mesh; assigning each of said wavelet coefficients to a single node in said tree; and compressing said wavelet coefficients represented in said tree to produce compressed data representing said function.