随着计算机软硬件和三维可视化等技术的发展，地图的表现形式越来越多，种类也越来越丰富。其中，基于三维地理空间模型的三维地图能够以更为直观、形象的三维方式来对地理空间进行表达，因而逐渐受到人们的重视。然而，目前对三维地理空间模型的设计大多停留在高仿真阶段，所建的地物模型往往不能代表一般性地物，无法重复利用，不利于地图整体的系统性，并且在制作过程中存在大量的重复性劳动，模型数据量也偏大。传统的平面地图通过二维符号系统来表达地理空间信息，并极大的满足了人们对地理空间的认知需求，因此，我们可以从符号的角度来讨论三维地理空间模型的设计。 三维地理空间模型符号化研究有两个重要的方面：一是如何设计三维地图符号才能体现地理空间各方面的信息尤其是用户感兴趣的信息；二是如何对三维地图符号进行组织和管理。本文首先对地理空间认知、三维地图符号等内容进行了研究与分析，奠定了符号化的理论基础，之后具体探讨了三维地图符号和三维地理空间模型的设计，并结合实例对比分析了符号化模型的作用效果，最后对三维地图符号库设计进行了研究。其中，主要的研究内容和成果有： （1）以空间认知的相关理论为基础，研究了地理空间认知的过程机制，分析和比较了地理空间信息的两种传输模式，并对三维地图空间认知规律进行了初步探讨。 （2）从地图学角度分析了地图符号与地理信息可视化的关系，深入剖析了三维地图符号的定义、分类和特点，并对三维地图符号的视觉变量进行了研究，总结出三维地图符号设计的一般原则，为三维地图符号的设计奠定了理论基础。 （3）以现有三维符号表达方式为基础，提出了真实感与非真实感联合表达的方式，按分类表达的思想对符号对象的选取与分类进行了详细阐述，对三维地图符号的简化设计进行了初步探讨，通过实例分析了三维地理空间模型符号化的效果。 （4）研究了三维地图符号体系，对三维地图符号库的设计内容进行了分析，并提出了三维地图符号库的一个基本框架。

With the development of computer hardware, software and 3D visualization, more and more map forms have appeared, and the types of the map is also becoming more and more abundant. Among them, the 3D map based on 3D geospatial model can express the geographical space by a more visual, concrete three-dimensional form, so it has been paid more and more attention. However, the current design of the 3D geospatial models are most in high simulation stage, and its feature model can not be on behalf of the general features and can’t reuse, so it hinders the system performance of the map, and there are a lot of repetitive work in the production process, then the model data size is also too large. Traditional planar map with 2D symbol system to express spatial information has greatly meet people’s geospatial cognition demand. Therefore, we can discuss the design of 3D geospatial model from the position of symbol. There are two important aspects in the study of 3D geospatial model symbolization: one is how to design 3D map symbol to express all aspects of the geography space information especially the user interested information; the two is how to organize and manage the 3D map symbol. Firstly, the spatial cognition and 3D map symbol has been studied and analyzed based on the theory of the symbolization, then the design of 3D map symbol and 3D geospatial model has been discussed, and the effect of the symbolic model has been contrasted and analyzed through the examples, the design of 3D map symbol base has been studied lastly. Among them, the main contents and results about the research are as follows: (1) Firstly, the progress mechanism of geospatial cognition has been studied under the theoretical basis of spatial cognition. Then, the two transmission modes of the geospatial information has been analyzed and compared, and the cognitive rule of 3D map space preliminarily has been studied. (2) Secondly, the relationship between map symbols and geographic information visualization has been analyzed. The definition, classification and characteristics of 3D map symbol have been studied deeply. Then the 3D map symbol visual variables have been studied, and the general principle of 3D map symbol design has been summarized. All of these have laid the theoretical foundation for the design of 3D map symbol. (3) Thirdly, an expression way combining the realistic and the non-photorealistic has been proposed based on the existing 3D symbol expression. According to the respective-express ideas, the selection and classification of the symbolic target has been discussed. Then the simplified design of 3D map symbol preliminarily has been studied, and the 3D geospatial model symbolic effect has been analyzed through the examples. (4) Finally, the 3D map symbol system has been studied. Then the design of 3D map symbol base has been analyzed, and a basic framework of 3D map symbol base has been put forward.