Abstract: The problem about multi-representations of spatial data is one of the hot topics in modern GIS.We pointed out that all kinds of published solutions could be concluded as three kinds of type techniques: explicit storage of multi-scale vector data,multi-scale spatial index,multi-scale vector data storage structure.Because there is more fertile soil to seed multi-scale spatial index method,we expatiated six kinds of multi-scale spatial index method,such as Reactive Tree,GAP-tree,Multi-Scale Hilbert R-tree,Multiple R-tree,and followed their development in recent years.According to our research experiments,we discussed their advantages and disadvantages,and provided some academic bases for their chosen and applications.Finally,we drawn some conclusions to guide the research on multi-scale spatial methods,and proposed the further research on multi-dimension index and optimized index.