A system for fast cartographic sounding selection

Soundings on nautical charts provide information about the shape of the ocean bottom
between chart depth curves. A single chart may have thousands of soundings posted on
it. This article describes a system for automatic cartographic sounding selection. In this
system, a new algorithm for automated selecting soundings is developed. The algorithm
is employed in such a way that it can guarantee (a) fast and accurate selecting sounding,
(b) processing the circular depth curves, (c) solving the overplotting problems between
depth curves and soundings, and (d) keeping selected soundings “prettier.” The system
was intensively tested using real data sets, and its superiority has been revealed by the
testing results.