Abstract: The submarine terrain data influences human cognition, exploration and utilization of the ocean largely. The generalization of submarine terrain data is one of the key researches of nautical chart generalization and oceanographic spatial data processing. Usually, the generalization of submarine terrain data belongs to map generalization. However, influenced by many factors, such as historical origin, disciplinary system, application target and so on, the generalization of submarine terrain data is often regarded as a relatively independent and special research content in map generalization. In this paper, the specificities of submarine terrain data generalization are explained at first. Furthermore, the development of submarine terrain data generalization is summarized from three aspects, i.e., the data enrichments, implementation methods and quality evaluations of submarine terrain data generalization. And then, three common use cases of submarine terrain data generalization are given. Finally, the development trend of submarine terrain data generalization is further discussed based on its content deficiency, technique upgrading and application prospect.

Key words: submarine terrain, map generalization, data enrichment, map generalization methods, quality evaluation