Big Earth Data

Understanding the Earth through Digital Technologies: Advances in China’s Digital Earth and Big Earth Data

Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of CNISDE

Founded in 2006, the Chinese National Committee of the International Society for Digital Earth (CNISDE) celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2026. As one of the earliest and most active national members of the International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE), CNISDE has, over the past two decades, played a vital role in advancing Digital Earth research through academic exchange, international collaboration, technological innovation, and interdisciplinary capacity building. It has established 23 specialized committees covering the core domains of Digital Earth and Big Earth Data, and regularly organizes influential academic conferences and forums, fostering open platforms for dialogue among geoscientists in China and worldwide.

Over the past 20 years, Digital Earth development in China has undergone substantial transformation. Rooted in the pioneering theory of Big Earth Data proposed by Chinese scholars, China has realized a paradigm shift from model-driven to data-intensive Earth system research. We have independently built a complete space–air–ground integrated Earth observation infrastructure, together with landmark national research infrastructures including the Digital Earth Science Platform, SDG Big Data Platform, SDGSAT-1 satellite, forming a comprehensive disciplinary framework encompassing remote sensing, geospatial information science, big data, AI, and digital twin Earth. These theoretical breakthroughs and engineering achievements have supported wide-ranging scientific research and real-world applications in climate monitoring, carbon accounting, ecological conservation, disaster risk reduction, cultural heritage preservation, and quantitative assessment of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). China has also promoted transnational observation initiatives, cross-regional collaborative modeling, and FAIR-aligned data sharing mechanisms, contributing distinctive theoretical, technological and application systems to the global Digital Earth community.

To mark this 20-year milestone, this commemorative Special Issue aims to systematically review the development trajectory of China’s Digital Earth including its original scientific paradigms, highlight landmark theoretical discoveries and technological innovations, explore emerging fundamental research frontiers for the coming decades, and further strengthen international academic collaboration. It serves as a high-level global platform for knowledge exchange, and advances the capacity of Digital Earth and Big Earth Data to address core geoscience challenges and advance global sustainable development.

We give priority to three types of high-impact manuscripts: landmark comprehensive reviews, original fundamental & applied research papers, and scientifically valuable global dataset papers. We warmly invite CNISDE members and researchers, and scholars worldwide to submit qualified manuscripts. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Theoretical evolution and fundamental scientific progress of China’s Digital Earth or Big Earth Data over the past two decades
• Independent innovation of China’s space–air–ground integrated Earth observation systems and major national Digital Earth or Big Earth Data infrastructures
• Basic mechanisms and research advances of terrestrial, marine, polar and human–Earth coupled systems
• Fundamental theories and physical mechanisms of multi-source remote sensing (LiDAR, hyperspectral, microwave etc.)
• Theoretical frameworks, algorithms and interpretability of GeoAI, geoscience foundation models and digital twin Earth
• Basic theories and intelligent computing methods for multi-source Big Earth Data fusion, mining and uncertainty quantification
• Scientific methodologies or innovative technologies for SDG monitoring and assessment
• Theoretical frameworks of transnational coordinated observation and FAIR-compliant open data governance
• Core unresolved scientific problems and international collaborative research pathways for Digital Earth in the next two decades