RESEARCH ON METHODS OF DRAWING UNDERSEA FEATURE NAMES THEMATIC MAP

China has submitted a proposal to the SCUFN to introduce the key technology and difficulties used in the thematic mapping to name undersea features. A comparative study is carried out for the software of Arcgis, GlobalMapper and Surfer. Results suggest that Arcgis have advantages in analysis and management of name information of undersea features in a form of spatial database. The Global Mapper performs well in grid data loading, real-time 3D display and data tailoring, whereas the software of Surfer has the advantages of simple operation and beautiful graphing for making 3D maps. Combined the advantages of the three kinds of software, the preparation scheme of the undersea feature name thematic mapping was developed upon joint data application. The scheme can meet the requirements of the undersea feature name proposal, improve the efficiency of mapping, and provide technical support for the thematic mapping of undersea feature names.