\section{Theory}
% Principles

In this chapter the theory behind polygon simplification will be explained. The simplification process is part of generalization in cartography. It will be clarified which goals drive the reduction of data quantity, especially in the context of web applications. Then several different simplification algorithms will be introduced. The leading data formats that represent geodata on the web will be explained. From there a closer look can be taken how the algorithms run on the web platform. For that the technology WebAssembly will be presented.
