Human-Earth System Science and Its Applications to Development of NSII
人地系统科学及其在NSII建设中的应用

Human Earth System Science(HESS) is a new inter discipline between natural and social sciences to monitor, analyze, simulate, control and guide the behavior, evolution, distribution and effects of interaction systems between human and earth where they have lived and developed. The science and its applications to development of National Spatial Information Infrastructure(NSII) in China are separately presented in two parts of this pater. In the first part, as study achievements, a conceptual model, branch definition and an operational mode of HESS are introduced. The conceptual model describes the construction of the system and interactive relationships of its components. Four branches divided from HESS include regional, thematic, experimental and technical ones. The operational mode put the development and applications of the science into an iterative loop of decision making and routine activities. All of the achievements made to the development and applications of HESS have a solid theoretical basis and very bright future. In the second part, the ways to solve the problems of NSII development in China, guided by the theory of HESS as mentioned before, are demonstrated. The problems include objectives and application scopes, working boundaries, ways of data sharing and partnership formulation of NSII. Obviously, it is very significant for the development of NSII in China reasonably to deal with these kinds of problems.