Report on the Sixth International Symposium on Digital Earth

The Sixth International Symposium on Digital Earth (ISDE6) was successfully convened in Beijing, China, from 9 to 12 September 2009. ISDE6 was hosted by the International Society for Digital Earth and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), organized by the Chinese National Committee of the International Society for Digital Earth and the CAS Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth, with co-sponsorship of 16 Chinese government departments, institutions and international organizations. More than 1000 scientists, engineers, educators, entrepreneurs, managers, administrators, and representatives of civil societies from more than 40 countries, international organizations, and NGOs attended the symposium. ISDE6 focused on the theme of ‘Digital Earth in Action.’ Some 900 abstracts and 500 full papers were submitted to the symposium, of which about 210 were presented as oral presentations at plenary and parallel sessions, and over 400 participants presented their poster papers. ISDE6 commenced on 9th September. At the opening ceremony, Prof. Lu Yongxiang, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, chairman of the International Society for Digital Earth, and president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, delivered a welcoming speech. In his speech, Prof. Lu Yongxiang reviewed the development of digital earth and the ISDE over the past decade, and pointed out that thanks to the joint efforts of scholars, policymakers, and enterprises worldwide, great achievements have been made in the field of digital earth, and international academic building in digital earth has also been constantly promoted. He proposed that in the process of building the digital earth, we must make full use of advanced earth observation technologies, new generation networking and sensing technologies, search technologies, browser technologies, and cloud computation technologies to improve the public service level, reduce service costs, bring ‘digital earth’ to every corner of the earth, and make digital earth an information platform for decision-makers and a real information homeland that is jointly built and shared by all mankind. Next, Cao Jianlin, vice minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology read the letter of congratulations from Ms. Liu Yandong, the member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and State Councilor. Representatives from international organizations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Group on Earth Observations, the