Abstract: The instant application provides a method and related system that adaptively turns layers on and off based upon a visibility value extracted from a respective layer or related database. Map data is first portioned by a grid and the visibility value for a layer is computed for each grid element. For a given map view, the visibility value of all grid elements within the view is used to compute an overall average visibility value for the layer in the current map view. The layer is then activated based upon the average visibility value as compared to a table of optimal scales.