The invention relates to a method and a device for applying a vector topographic map to path planning. The method comprises the steps of 1) reading data of the vector topographic map and performing preliminary processing; 2) converting coordinates in the vector topographic map into slicing coordinates, wherein coordinate conversion of the vector topographic map firstly need to convert the coordinates into longitude and latitude coordinates, and then the longitude and latitude coordinates are converted into slicing coordinates; 3) slicing the data of the vector topographic map according to a recursive quad-tree mode, that is, dividing the vector topographic map into four parts, then segmenting each part into four parts, and performing the segmentation until a preset slicing level is reached; and 4) fusing the vector topographic map and geographic information data. Path scheme planning can be performed more visually and more accurately according to the method.