Meeting the Challenge of"Digital Earth"
迎接"数字地球"的挑战

The newly proposed concept"Digital Earth" was discussed in the perspective of the strategy of development of geosciences. It is pointed out that"Digital Earth" is a reasonable development of high technology from NII and NSDI, refle cting the needs for sustainable development of economy and society. On the othe rhand, however, as a comprehensive technique goal, the"Digital Earth" is fa cing to some challenging problems, such as the technique security and the mana gement of macro complex systems. By analyzing the national interests of China, it is concluded that to develop a"Chinese Digital Earth" or a"Digital China" will be beneficial for the sustainable development of agriculture, the prote ction of environment, the mitigation of natural disasters, and the development of economy and technology. It is worth pointing out that to develop a"Chinese Digital Earth" or a"Digital China" is a realistic aim in technology, which results from the recent development of space technology and information technolo gy. In the turn of the centuries, one of the most important aims of Chinese ge osciences is to enhance the quality and promote the application of fundamental r esearches, in which the"Digital Earth" will play an active role. It is empha sized that at present, the most important thing is not to discuss the dogmatic c oncept of the"Digital Earth", or to put forward the"Digital Earth" into a single research project, but to understand the"Digital Earth" as a long ter m strategy of development and handle this concept as a policy of science and tec hnology to promote the development of geosciences, informatics and the associate d industry.