In general, the invention relates to a method for performing polygon dissections in a geographic information system. The method includes receiving a notification of a spatial update for a number of polygons, where each of the number of polygons overlaps at least one of a number of previously dissected polygons, determining that a dissection is required based on the spatial update, and obtaining an updated polygon, associated with the spatial update, and related polygons of the number of polygons, where each of the related polygons overlaps the updated polygon. The method further includes dissecting the updated polygon and the related polygons to obtain a number of dissected polygons and replacing at least one of the number of previously dissected polygons with the number of dissected polygons, where the at least one of the number of previously dissected polygons is invalid based on the spatial update.