Mapping automation is not only a key objective of cartology, but also a study hotspot of geo-spatial information science at present. Here, we take thematic mapping of river channels (pipelines) passing through Yunnan in Kunming City for example to study and discuss, with regard to the effect required by complicated mapping encountering in the process of project implementation and the requirements on high quality of mapping data, the representation of rule-based datadriven computer mapping by the Representation technique of Arcgis9.3 to partly accomplish such mapping task that needs a lot of manual editing in traditional mapping mode, especially achieve the some kinds of mapping effect that cannot be achieved by traditional mapping without destructing GIS spatial information. The findings indicate that, the representation technique of rule-based driven computer mapping can reflect the advantages of both GIS spatial database establishment and mapping. This technique can make map rapidly according to different data requirements, and achieve the effect of traditional mapping. Due to less demand on manpower and financial capacity, such technique has a broad prospect of promotion and engineering application. Keywords-Map database, rule-based driven, representation of mapping