Zusammenfassung: The fractal nature of the coastline makes it desirable to sample the World Vector Shoreline (WVS) data base in a manner related to the map scale at which it will be displayed. A survey of US Navy users has determined that several resolutions of the WVS are required. This report shows the relationship among vector data-base resolution, display device resolution, and map scale, then presents three simplification algorithms. These algorithms provide means of reducing the data-base resolution to that which is appropriate for a particular map scale and display device resolution. The discussion is supplemented with a series of maps illustrating the output of the simplification algorithms at several map scales.