Abstract: Map generalization is a procedure involving much intellective reasoning action,with very wide domain.It is also a difficult problem in the field of cartography in the world.This paper makes a study on the interactive digital generalization,and an interactive map generalization environment for large scale topographic map is then designed and realized.A number of tests have proved that map generalization can be successfully and interactively done with the cooperation of human and computer if the procedures of map generalization are wisely decomposed.Compared with the traditional manual method,interactive map generalization can shorten the working time to 1/4 or even.Besides,the work will become less intensive with higher precision.