Abstract: In view of routine line simplification method less considering river curve's three-dimensional shape and topological structure which is applied to line simplification of river, the paper proposes a method of river line simplification considering three-dimensional shape characteristics. On the basis of three-dimensional Douglas-Peucker (3D D-P) algorithm, a three-dimensional scatter point queuing method is proposed. In this algorithm, points set in river curves are queued by river curves' three-dimensional feature, which would be divided into initial queue process, "3 in 1" combination queue process and adjusting constraint point position process. Then, some proportional points corresponding with compression ratio are deleted from queue's rear. Finally, simplified river curves are reconstructed by points' order in river curve. The results of experiment show that river curves' three-dimensional shape feature could be maintained and the consistence of river curves' topological structure could be ensured.