Generalisation of submarine features on nautical charts

Abstract

On most large scale and middle scale maps, relief is represented by contours and spot heights. In order to adapt the representation to the scale, the terrain is generalised either by smoothing or filtering the terrain model or by simplifying the contours. However this approach is not applicable to nautical chart construction where terrain features are selected according to their importance for navigation. This paper presents an approach for the consideration of feature attributes in the generalisation of a set of contours with respect to nautical chart constraints. Features are defined by sets of contours and a set of generalisation operators applied to features is presented. The definitions are introduced in a multi-agent system in order to perform automatic generalisation of a contour set. Results are discussed on a case study and directions for future work are presented.