Digital Earth in Support of Global

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Digital Earth in support of global

change researchC. Shupeng

a& J. van Genderen

b

aInstitute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese Academy of

Sciences, P.O.Box 9718, Beijing, 100101, ChinabInternational Institute for Geoinformation Science and Earth

Observation (ITC), Department of Earth Observation Science, P.O.

Box 6, 7500, AA Enschede, The Netherlands

Published online: 04 Feb 2008.

To cite this article: C. Shupeng & J. van Genderen (2008): Digital Earth in support of global change

research, International Journal of Digital Earth, 1:1, 43-65

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Digital Earth in support of global change research

C. Shupeng$ and J. van Genderen*%

Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O.Box 9718, Beijing

100101, China; International Institute for Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation

(ITC), Department of Earth Observation Science., P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The

Netherlands

(Received 25 August 2007; final version received 20 October 2007)

The Digital Earth concept as originally proposed by former US Vice president Al

Gore is now well established and widely adopted internationally. Similarly, many

researchers world-wide are studying the causes, effects and impacts of GlobalChange. The authors commence by describing a five-step approach to the

development of Digital Earth technologies. This is followed by a detailed account

of Digital Earth research and developments in China. The authors then present

the research results of Global Change studies carried out in China, based on the

Digital Earth approach. These research results are based on a classification of

global change regions. This covers the following global change situations:

Forest and grassland fires in Northern China, temperate region desertification

and dust storms, underground coal fires, deforestation and carbon sequestration,

protection and utilisation of wetlands, Avian Influenza and the spread of diseases,

Tibet Plateau uplift and sub-tropical monsoon climate region, and sea-level rise.

The research results show that the environment does not behave in a way easilyunderstood by the traditional disciplinary approach. Although man is clearly a

contributing factor to certain Global Change aspects, such as underground coal

fires, desertification, land use changes etc., many of the aspects of Global Change

are naturally occurring phenomena which have been changing over centuries, and

will continue to do so, no matter what actions we undertake to reverse these

processes. Hence, in their conclusions, the authors propose that the communities

involved in Digital Earth modelling and in Global Change research co-operate

closer to overcome the limitations inherent in the current conventional scientific

approach, where scientists have very much stayed within their respective scientific

boundaries. Such an integrated approach will enable us to build the next level of

scientific infrastructure required to understand and predict naturally occurringenvironmental changes, as well as that of coupled humanenvironmental systems.

Keywords: digital earth; global change; digital China; digital earth applications

Introduction

The Digital Earth concept as proposed by Al Gore (1998) is well described, in terms

of its early history, development, and societal impacts in other papers in this journal,

(e.g. Foresman 2008, Goodchild 2008 and Ehlers 2008), and hence will not be

repeated here. Similarly, global change research has benefited greatly over the past

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

ISSN 1753-8947 print/ISSN 1753-8955 online

# 2008 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/17538940701782510

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International Journal of Digital Earth

Vol. 1, No. 1, March 2008, 4365
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decades from simulations with quite advanced climate models, which are largely

based on the analysis of meteorological and other earth observation satellite and in-

situ data (Stern 2006).

However, global change involves significantly more components than only

climate. Changes in the Earth System, which refer to the suite of interacting

physical, chemical, biological and human processes, can have significant conse-

quences, without involving any major changes in climate (Steffen and Tyson 2001).

In this paper, the authors first describe a five-step approach to the development

of Digital Earth technologies. This is followed by an account of the Chinese situation

with regards to Digital Earth research and development. The authors then present a

number of examples of global change research, based on the Digital Earth approach.

These cover forest and grassland fires, desertification and sandstorms, deforestation,

forest carbon sequestration, wetlands conservation, monitoring migratory birds for

the spread of avian influenza (bird flu), Tibet Plateau uplift, sea level rise, and

underground coal fires. The research results presented are based on a classification ofGlobal Change regions in China developed by the authors and presented for the first

time in this paper. Although the research results described in this paper relate mainly

to China, the approach may also be applicable and relevant to other regions of the

globe.

At the end of the paper, the authors draw some conclusions on the role that

Digital Earth can play and contribute to global change studies at global, regional

and local levels.

Developments in the science and technology of Digital Earth

The Digital Earth concept was the inevitable outcome of the space era. Ever since

the first images of our planet Earth became available, earth observation has

contributed greatly to the development of the information society. The 21st century

is characterised by regular global coverage by data from geostationary satellites,

detailed environmental information from polar orbiting satellites at a variety of

spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions, highly advanced computer, multi-media

and virtual reality technology, as well as stable global positioning systems. In

addition, geographic information systems, and broadband network communication

technology enable highly accurate three-dimensional (3D) models, integration of

multi-source, multi-resolution, multi-temporal global earth observation data sets to

be produced. These, together with socio-economic spatial statistical data enable

decision makers to use these technologies to benefit mankind (Fischer-Kowalski and

Haberl 2007).

In concrete terms, Digital Earth can be considered in terms of the following five

phases:

. Data extraction;

. Information extraction;

. Knowledge extraction;

. Modelling;

. Decision making.

44 C. Shupeng and J. van Genderen


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Data extraction

The first step is to extract the relevant data from the earth observation imagery. The

relevant satellite sensor parameters, after radiometric, geometric and standardisation

procedures have been applied, need to be extracted from the numerous satellite

systems providing data on a daily basis. They then have to be transmitted, stored inlarge data bases, to enable data query and exploitation services. The imagery and the

metadata associated with it, form the input for the next phase, namely the extraction

of meaningful (useful) information.

Information extraction

Extracting relevant information from these huge data archives and data bases

involves a number of technologies which are all undergoing rapid advancement.

These include geo-statistical analysis, object-oriented image classification, graphical

information analysis, data mining and especially the study of dynamic global change

studies using change detection technologies. This implies that the data sets used arefully calibrated in step 1 above, so that quantitative comparisons of different regions

of the globe can be compared.

Knowledge extraction

The third phase involves extracting knowledge or real understanding of the

information extracted from the earth observation data. Here various kinds of

professional application models are applied to the imagery, data and information in

order to extract some objective laws which provide the scientific basis for

engineering design, quality/reliability standards or for management informationsystems.

Modelling

Based on these objective laws and some reference boundary conditions, it is possible,

by means of virtual reality modelling, to reconstruct past and present natural and

social processes/situations, and then to predict future development trends for global

change researchers, and thus to provide them with alternative scenarios (van

Genderen 1999).

Decision making

The final steps in this process is to present the outputs of the models to the decision

makers (e.g. on impacts of sea-level rise, deforestation, desertification, etc.) to enable

them to select the best of the multiple options available from the models, most suited

to their practical, political, geographical, socio-economic conditions.

From the above process, it can be seen that by promoting the Digital Earth

strategy in relation to global change issues, we can contribute to the advancement of

science and technology, sharing of information resources, and to improving global

socio-economic and environmental development.

This concept is treated in depth by Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl (2007), whoargue that by concentrating on the biophysical dimensions of change, across multiple

International Journal of Digital Earth 45


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scales, social development issues can be explicitly linked to changes in the natural

environment.

Digital Earth in China

Background

The central government and the community of science and technology in China have

paid great attention to the development of Digital Earth. Since the emergence of the

concept of Digital Earth in 1998, several workshops on Digital Earth have been held

in China. At the first International Symposium on Digital Earth in Beijing in 1999,

the Beijing Declaration on Digital Earth was approved (Ehlers 2008). An

International Steering Committee of the Symposium was formed in 2000, and this

was subsequently transformed into the International Society for Digital Earth in

2006, with its Headquarters in Beijing.

In 1999, scientists in China submitted a proposal on Chinas Digital Earth

Development Strategy to the State Council. A Coordinating Committee of National

Geographical Spatial Information was formed with participants from 11 ministries

in 2000. This resulted in many initiatives by various agencies in the field of Digital

Earth. Some of the main ones included the following:

. A research team for Constructing the Geographical Information Frame

Overall Strategy for Digital China was formed in 2001 by the State Bureau of

Surveying and Mapping.

. In the same year, the Ministry of Construction published a Technical

Guideline of Demonstrative Application Engineering for Urban Information

Based Technology and Several Suggestions on Speeding up the Process ofSystem Information.

. The Ministry of Land Resources set up the target of constructing a National

Land Resources Information System.

. The Chinese Academy of Sciences initiated several knowledge innovation

projects of Research on Digital Earth Basic Theory and Digital Earth

Prototype System, and setup a new organisation called Centre for Earth

Observation and Digital Earth (CEODE) in 2007.

. Beijing University has established an Institute of Digital China.

. The Ministry of Construction has organised several China International

Conference on Digital City and China International Expo on City

Construction Technology and Equipment in 2001 2006 and 2007, with the

objective of discussing and promoting the applications of the Digital Earth

concept for Chinas cities.

. In June 2007, the 303rd Xiangshan Science Forum, a high level forum on

scientific viewpoints, was held in Beijing. The themes of the forum included (1)

Scientific meaning of Digital China and its developing strategy; (2) the

technical system and innovation of Digital China, (3) the engineering strategy

and industrial promotion; (4) the action plan for Digital China.

Digital China is defined by the authors as: Digital China is the representation of

the real China in a virtual environment. Taking the whole of China as an object withgeo-spatial coordinates as its base, and spatial information technology as a key



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measure, Digital Earth is constructed as a virtual 3D digital resources platform and

information resources exploitation and utilisation environment by means of

integrating and combining all kinds of data, information and knowledge. It is a

large open and complex system, and can fully utilise the huge amount of spatial and

temporal information in areas of earth observation, natural resources, ecological

environment, and social economy. Supported by earth observation, spatial informa-

tion system, database, virtual reality, internet and high speed searching technologies,

Digital China allows the user to realise information querying, indexing, analysing,

processing, sharing, expressing and dynamic updating, and to support the establish-

ment of various kinds of application systems and operational services, and thus

improve the utilisation rate and application efficiency. Digital city is the most

concrete embodiment of Digital China. In the urban city environment, grid systems

are used as a framework to integrate high-resolution urban imagery and all kinds of

databases, e.g. e-government database, business database, population database,

infrastructure database, etc. Merging e-government and e-business together will

support urban social and economic development, and play a role of moving forward

industrialisation and modernisation by information-based technology.

Currently, 20 provinces and autonomous regions are building digital provinces,

and some 200 cities have initiated their programmes of digital city, and more than

100 cities have successfully built Digital City. For example, Digital Fujian has

integrated over 80 databases from 21 bureaus or departments, and provided

consultative service to provincial, regional, and municipal governments. The

Dongcheng District in Beijing has built up a large scale grid network of 10 000 m

information management system, and proposed a brand new version for city

management. Some large cities, such as Beijing have built up digital areas and digital

communities, for example, Digital Zhongguancun, Digital Wangfujing. In

addition, for comprehensive treatment and management of major rivers, Digital

Yangtze River, Digital Yellow River, and Digital Hai River have also been

initiated. All of them provide information services for coordinating resource

exploitation and environment protection, and also for supplying information for

regional sustainable development. (Chen and Guo 2000).

The following sections describe earth observation and geospatial data infra-

structure in building Digital Earth, the Digital Earth Prototype System (DEPS)

developed at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the application of DEPS in the

2008 Beijing Olympics.

Earth observation and geospatial data infrastructure

Digital Earth is an information integrative engineering system built upon global

earth observing systems, satellite communication systems, the global internet and

other cutting edge technologies of the 1990s. The vigorous development of Earth

observation technology is an indispensable basis for Digital Earth. Chen and Guo

(2000) provide a more detailed discussion on the relation of Digital Earth and Earth

observation.

Over the past 30 years, since the first launch of a Chinese satellite, China has

launched over 50 satellites and 6 Shenzhou spacecraft. Six satellite series arecurrently operational. These are:



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1. Recoverable remote sensing;

2. Dongfanghong communication and broadcasting satellites;

3. Fengyun meteorological satellites;

4. Shijian scientific probing and technological experimental satellites;

5. Resources earth observing satellites;

6. Beidou navigation and positioning satellites.

An ocean satellite series is in preparation, and an Environmental and disaster

monitoring satellite constellation is also under construction. A number of high

performance payloads have been successfully developed. In Chinas mid- to long-

term (20062020) plan, high-resolution stereo earth observing satellites will be

developed and launched. Both polar-orbiting and geostationary meteorological

satellites, ocean satellites, earth resources satellites, environment and disaster

monitoring constellation satellites will be further developed. Research into key

techniques for stereo mapping satellites are well advanced and nearing operationa-

lisation. All these are gradually forming an earth observing system characterised byall weather, continuous, multi-spectral, multiple resolution, and stable operation,

realising stereo and dynamic observation for land, atmosphere, and oceans. Data

sharing has been enhanced, with CBERS and MODIS data being freely down-

loadable, providing more stable and updated data for ensuring Digital Chinas

construction. Meanwhile, China has provided meteorological satellite data with 1)

1 km grid to the member countries of the World Meteorological Organization.

In the newly established Centre for Earth Observation and Digital Earth

(CEODE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Satellite Remote Sensing Centre

(formerly the China Remote-Sensing Satellite Ground Station, established in 1986) is

responsible for the reception and pre-processing of remote sensing satellite data. Itincludes three ground receiving stations: Miyun ground station in Beijing, Kashi

ground station in Xinjiang Autonomous Regiuon, and Sanya ground station in

Hainan Province. These cover all of central, eastern and south-east Asia. The Centre

has already received data from some 16 satellites, including Landsat, SPOT,

Radarsat-1, ERS-2, ENVISAT, IRS-P6, MODIS, CBERS etc, and has become

one of the major international reception networks which deal with the reception,

processing and dissemination of satellite data. It stores 15 TB data in its archives per

year, (approximates 1.4 million remote sensing scenes). Together with the Centre for

China Resources Satellite Applications, the Centre for China Meteorological

Satellites and the Centre for China Ocean Satellite Applications, an operational

remote sensing satellite data production system has been established.

The Airborne Remote Sensing Centre within CEODE owns and operates four

remote sensing aircraft (two in service at present, and two new ones pending

delivery) and maintain a variety of sensor systems dedicated to the support of Digital

Earth research. The CEODE aircraft are used as test-beds for advanced sensor

design, satellite simulation, and algorithms validation, as well as to support scientific

and operational data collection campaigns. Numerous sensor systems are in use, and

most of them were developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, including

multispectral imaging devices, imaging spectrometer, Synthetic Aperture Radar

(SAR) system, and a suite of large-format mapping cameras. Data are collected for

the atmospheric, land, and ocean aspects of the Chinese Earth Science programme,as well as for academic institutions and other government agencies.



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The Spatial Data Center (SDC) in CEODE is responsible for the aircraft and

spaceborne earth observation data archives, processing and dissemination. It

provides feedback to its client at every stage of the process to keep them informed

of the status of their data request. The Earth Science Data Division is especially in

charge of international science data sharing.

The Digital Earth Laboratory (DEL) in CEODE is responsible for developing

geospatial science and Digital Earth technology. A high-performance Digital Earth

platform has been established in DEL, which provides the public an easy to

understand visualisation environment. DEL is also responsible for the provision of

high level application research to help the decision makers to make the right

decisions affecting both national and global interests.

China pays great attention to the building of a national spatial data

infrastructure, and has already completed national basic geographic datasets with

scales of 1:4 000 000, 1:1 000 000, and 1:250 000 as well as regional basic geographic

datasets for key areas of flood prevention along seven major rivers. With the support

of the Ministry of Science and Technology, a spatial information sharing and serviceplatform China Spatial Information Network at the national level was started in

1999 with the purpose of promoting spatial information technology and its industrial

development. This has laid a firm scientific basis for Digital China and obtained

significant social and economic benefits. The relevant sectors of land resources,

agriculture, forest, and hydrology have strengthened the building of resources and

environmental databases as well as the fusion of management information systems,

which also contributes to the construction of Digital China. As a part of the basic

infrastructure of the national geographic spatial information, high precision national

digital terrain models at a scale of 1:1 000 000 have been updated twice, and the

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) at scales of 1:250 000 and 1:50 000 are currentlybeing constructed. The national digital geological maps at 1:500 000 scale have been

completed. The national database of landcover and landuse, forest, pasture field,

lake, glaciers, and historical records of earthquakes and so on has already been

involved in the international science database programme (CODATA), and is

regularly updated by FY, HY and CBERS satellite data.

Digital earth prototype system

As an example of building the Digital Earth systems in China, a project entitled

Digital Earth Prototype System (DEPS) for implementing the Digital Earth

concept was set up by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999. The main objective

of this project is to develop the theoretical analysis of Digital Earth, construct the

structure frame and model of Digital Earth, demonstrate its functions in earth

science research and social development, provide the theoretical and technological

support for the Digital Earth stratagem, and gradually form the data sharing and

application platform (Digital Earth Prototype System Research Team 2005).

The current DEPS V1.0 is composed of subsystems with data reception, fast

processing and grid computing, meta-data service, spatial information database,

model base, map service and virtual reality. During the whole working procedure,

from data acquisition to data analysis and display, subsystems are compactly linked

up to form the working platform of Digital Earth. DEPS research mainly consistsof three aspects: basic theoretical research, key technology development, and



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applications. Some 3TB data resources and dozens of database systems are

integrated at present. DEPS has already begun to provide services and support to

many fields, such as crop assessment, disaster monitoring, urban development

remote sensing dynamic monitoring, digital city, digital Olympics, energy resources,

archaeology and tourism.

The following key technologies are implemented in DEPS:

. High-performance scientific computing ability. Grid computing is introduced

into the present computing environment of DEPS. It organises distributed

computers to cooperate and solve complicated science and project computing

problems, and represents a flexible and expandable system framework.

. Large data storage and updating technology. By using large data storage with

advanced database platform, the links among the accumulated 3TB aerial,

satellite database clusters have been realised.

. Meta-data management technology. With the adoption of the meta-data

management mode for many kinds of geosciences data, the fast querying andsearching of the geographical data within the same grid, social economic data

and property data have been greatly improved.

. Multi-data fusion technology. By means of multi-source data fusion methods,

using feature based and decision based methods, many inter-related problems

can be studied from various perspectives.

. Virtual-reality technology. Demonstrating 3D earth surface and 4D trends

with virtual reality technology; implementing data analysis and processing

functions in the virtual scene.

. Data compressing and fast rewinding technology. The data management of

Digital Earth needs data and information compression technology with

powerful functions. This has been achieved by fast compression and rewinding

of the wavelet different scale remote sensing data pyramids.

. Data mining. This involves automatically or semi-automatically extracting the

needed information in the vast spatial data and demonstrating this in an easily

understandable way, with essential application value.

. Web GIS and interactive operation technology. This is achieved by using a fast

network connection and a browser database cluster through a network

protocol and OpenGIS standards.

Digital Olympics: dynamic environment monitoringFocusing on the concept of Green Olympics, Scientific Olympics and Humanity

Olympics for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and implementing the action for

having Olympics with science and technology, dynamic remote sensing monitoring

has been used for continuous observation of many Olympic targets so as to solve

several key issues related to environment, traffic, pollution, and stadium construc-

tion, aimed at building Digital Earth, Digital Beijing, and Digital Olympics. The

results have been very useful and supportive to the Local Organising Committee of

the Olympics in the course of its planning, decision making and management.

The project of Dynamic Environment Monitoring for Olympics, as an

indispensable part of DEPS, fully utilises multi-temporal high-resolution remotesensing data, global positioning system (GPS), geographic information system



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(GIS), virtual reality etc. The goal, in the spatial aspect, was to realise dynamic

monitoring of the surrounding environment of all the main stadiums. In terms of the

temporal aspect, the goal was to conduct three consecutive years of remote sensing

observations. The observation and monitoring were mainly on the following three

aspects.

1. Stadium related items: stadium distribution, construction status, old house

demolition;

2. transportation engineering: road, metro, etc.;

3. environmental engineering: vegetation, water bodies, etc.

Two systems have been built for the project. One is a high-resolution remote sensing

monitoring system for the environment of the main Olympic stadiums, and the other

one is a virtual reality and simulation information platform of the Olympics

engineering environment. For the main Stadium area of the Olympic games, high-

resolution airborne and colour infrared images were acquired from 2002 to 2006.Especially in 2005, a fully digital sensor ADS40 with ground resolution of 0.3 m and

4 spectral bands ranging from 430 nm to 885 nm acquired airborne imagery of all the

Olympic sites. All the images were used for dynamic land use classification, which

provided basic knowledge about the construction progress of the buildings, stadiums

and their surrounding environment.

On the basis of virtual reality technology, the digital Olympic Games 3D

simulation system is an environment information platform for the Olympic

gymnasium and stadium by applying and integrating remote sensing, geographic

information system, GPS and other technologies. According to the layout and design

for the Olympic game sites and surrounding environment, 3D scenes of virtualreality and simulation were developed, and 3D models for the Olympic park,

buildings of Olympic games and surround areas were also built. These scenes

basically reflect the ideas of the Department of Planning of the organising committee

of the 2008 Olympics (Figure 1).

Global change research based on digital earth

The development of the Digital Earth concept and related technologies, together

with the results of Global Change research are two areas where rapid progress has

been made over the past few years. This, together with developments in geoinfor-matics, are resulting in global spatial infrastructures now being used as Digital Earth

models, to enable multiple attributes to be obtained from any location on Earth. At a

recent Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) Open Science Conference on:

Global Environmental Change: Regional Challenges, held in Beijing, China from 9

to 12 November 2006, it was stressed that there was a need for a new system of

global environmental science. This is where the Digital Earth approach as described

in detail in several other papers in this issue, fits in. The research results discussed

below, all related to the millennium development goals, show that topics such as

forest fires, deforestation, desertification, wetlands, spread of diseases, sea level rise,

etc. are all tied into the broader issue of global security. (German Advisory Councilon Global Change 2007)



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The country has been classified into five zones, mainly on the basis of latitude. In

the far north, (zone 1), the area is characterised by taiga forests, westerly winds, and

often experiences severe forest fires. Zone 2 consists mainly of Gobi desert, with

occasional oases, large areas of wind blown loess deposits, and in this zone there are

large problems with dust and air pollution, caused by deforestation, desertification,and numerous underground coal fires. Zones 3 and 4 are approximately at the same

latitude, but because of the Tibet Plateau, have vastly different environmental

conditions. Whilst Zone 3 is typified by high altitude, low oxygen, strong sunshine

and glaciers, Zone 4, because of the blocking effect of the Himalayan mountains, has

a sub tropical monsoon climate, with mixed evergreen forests and large areas of

ricefields. Zone 5, in the south of the country is characterised by tropical rainforest,

typhoons, and coral reefs. The following sections describe the main global change

actions occurring in each of these five zones.

Global Change Zone 1: Forest and grassland fires in Northern China.

The Heilongjiang Province in North East China lying in the latitude range of N. 458

to N. 558 has the largest forest area in China. It is situated in the same high latitude

zone as the taiga forest zones in Russia, Canada and Mongolia.

Some 20 years ago, a very large forest fire occurred in the Da Xing An Ling

mountain area of this province, covering an area of more than 100 million hectares

(Cahoon et al. 1994). It was first detected and subsequently regularly monitored by

the Chinese Meteorological satellite Feng Yun.This fire stimulated considerable

research into the causes and mechanism of forest fires (Corey et al. 2006, Keane et al.

2006). Figure 3 is a Landsat colour composite of the 1987 forest fire, covering partsof N.E. China, Russia, and Eastern Mongolia.

Figure 1. 3D virtual reality scene of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Park (image courtesy of

CEODE).



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Grassland fires in western and central areas as well as in Mongolia, occur

frequently, spreading out from the west in an easterly direction, fuelled by the

prevailing westerly winds. The Chinese government, via the China Meteorological

Administration has set up a monitoring system for the easy detection monitoring

and control of forest fires using thermal infrared remote sensing methods. This

model was first developed and tested in Jilin Province in eastern China and

subsequently became the system adopted for the national forest fire monitoring

system. One of the concrete results of this system has been the successful blocking ofthe Mongolian grassland fires in to China.

Figure 2. Latitudinal zones of Global Change areas in China.



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As a result of the research into the mechanisms of forest and grassland fires over

the past 20 years, a better understanding into the causes and ecological effects efforts

of such fires has been obtained. The phenomenon of fires is a natural process of

forest metabolism, and is therefore clearly not only caused by human actions (Keane,

et al 2006, Chen and Cheng, 2001).

Temperate region desertification and dust storms (Global Change Zone 2, Figure 2)

With the rapid urbanisation and increase in the welfare of Beijing, the Beijing

Municipal government has invested much money and other resources to decrease the

influence of sand and dust storms in the city, especially with a view to improve air

quality before the Beijing Olympics in August 2008. Although forest shelter belts and

wind breaks were set up, it soon became clear that these are useless to prevent dust

from coming 3000 metres up in the atmosphere from western China.

In addition, the air currents from the Shanxi plateau also transport much dust to

Beijing (Ren, et al. 2003). The book Yellow Cloud from Thousands of Miles by

Zeng Qingcun (2006) provides many details and examples of dust transport in

China, and showed how coal dust from Shanxi Province is transported to Beijing,

especially in the autumn. The sand transport is mainly from northwest Mongolia,

Gansu and Inner Mongolia regions (Derbyshire et al. 1998, Tsolmon et al. 2008).

Joint research by Chinese and Japanese scientists on loess dust has shown that such

dust reaches the Korean peninsula, Japan, Taiwan and even beyond to Hawaii

(Naoko Iino and Kisei Kinoshita 2001).

Back in the 1950s, Russian scholars held the view that loess was principally

driven by hydrology. However, research by the first author, together with Russian

scientists Gerasimov and Kovda along the south bank of the Yangtze River, proved

that there was loess accumulation underneath a basalt coverage, which provides

strong evidence against the hydrological theory. Chinese researchers have made asystematic study of the loess along the Yellow River. Deposits of up to 600 m thick

Figure 3. Landsat image segment of the major forest fire in N.E. China in 1987 (image

courtesy of CEODE).



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are clearly windborne. Thus, in contrast to the alluvial loess deposits in Europe, loess

in Central Asia results mainly from sand deposition by wind transport, and is

a process that has been going on for 10 000 years, during which time numerous

humous interlayers of black soil have formed (Zhu and Zhu 1990, Zhu and

Ren 1992).

Thus loess is a soil type formed by deposition of wind transported sand over long

time periods. The idea of stopping shifting sand dunes in localised areas in China has

been abandoned and replaced by a deeper understanding of this global change

phenomenon, something probably already understood by the nomadic herdsmen on

the grasslands of Inner Mongolia centuries ago (Genderen van and Squires 1994,

Geist 2005).

Underground coal fires

The spontaneous combustion of coal seams is a major problem in most coal mining

areas of the world. Underground coal fires are widely reported in countries such asthe USA, Australia, India, and China. As the largest producer of coal in the world,

China is particularly affected by this problem. The areas prone to spontaneous

combustion of coal extends some 4000 km in West-East direction from the Xinjiang

Autonomous region in the north west, to Heilongjiang Province in the far north east,

and some 750800 km in North-South direction, covering almost exactly the same

areas as Global Change Zone 2 of Figure 2.

In a recent paper (Chen et al. 2007(b)), it was estimated that some 100 to 200

million tonnes of coal are burnt each year. Besides resulting in a major economic

loss, the large amounts of CO2 and other harmful gases produced by these coal fires

has a significant effect on global warming. (Genderen van and Guan 1997). Earthobservation data has shown to be particularly useful for detecting the fires,

measuring them (size, depth etc) modelling the fires (direction and speed of fire

front, amount of coal burnt, etc.), and monitoring the effects and efficiency of the

fire fighting efforts (Zhang et al. 1999, Peng et al. 1997). The fires contribute some 2

3% of global CO2 discharges. This is more than double the TOTAL CO2 production

of the Netherlands (Rosema et al. 1995)

Again, the Digital Earth approach of using multi-scale, multi-temporal, multi-

resolution and fused data sets are most appropriate to study and understand this

important topic in global change research. Figures 4(a) and 4(b) show some 3D

models of coal-fire areas in the Junghar Basin in the Xinjiang Autonomous region in

N.W. China (Figure 4(a)), and in the Wuda area of Inner Mongolia (Figure 4(b)). On

the cover of a recent issue of the International Journal of Remote Sensing, several

more 3D models of coal fires in China are presented (Chen et al. 2007(a)).

Deforestation and carbon sequestration

The Ministry of Forestry in China estimates that forests contribute about 89% to the

reduction of CO2 discharges. However, forestry researchers are still not unanimous in

their views on the role of forest carbon sequestration. (Metz et al. 2007, Yamagate

2006). Thus, similar to the discussion on whether shelter forests consume water or

conserve water, experimental data on whether forests absorb large amounts of CO2or absorb oxygen and discharge CO2 gases are still inconclusive. Of course, the



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overall ecological effects of forests, reforestation and having more green vegetation

coverage are environmentally beneficial. Many large reforestation projects are being

carried out in China, which have resulted in the percentage forest cover having

increased from 17% in the 1950s to more than 35% in 2007. In some provinces such

as Fujian, Jilin, and Heilongjiang, forest coverage is as high as 60% to 70%.

Many land use changes have occurred under this policy of returning farmland to

forest and grasslands, whilst attempting to maintain the red line of the minimum

amount of farmland to provide the food for Chinas large population. This fits with

many studies made on land use change internationally (Rudel 2005, Lambin and

Geist 2006).

At present, one of the largest projects in China is the Three North Shelter

Forest, consisting of the construction of a belt of trees extending over 2000 km from

the west to the east of China, just south of the temperate desertification region

Protection and Utilisation of Wetlands

Wetlands are often refereed to as being the lungs of the Earth. Hence the Digital

Earth approach to the protection of wetlands has become a major focus for global

Figure 4a. 3D model of coalfires in the Kelazha anticline in Xinjiang, N.W. China, with a

thermal infrared image draped over a DEM of the area.

Figure 4b. 3D model of the Wuda coal fire area in Inner Mongolia, produced with ASTER

data.



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Over the past 20 years, some 160 lakes of the former 208 lakes in the Jianghan

plain have disappeared. These processes can be quantitatively monitored by earth

observation satellites.

Irrigated rice fields function as type of seasonal wetlands during part of the rice

crop phenology. However, because of the ever greater shortage of irrigation water,

the area under irrigated rice is decreasing rapidly (Yuan et al. 2002). In their research

in the wetland area of the Yangtze River (which cover an area of 215.000 ha), they

found that the rich biological resources of the area are under threat. Of the 136

species of vascular plants, 150 bird species and 68 species of benthic macro-

inverterbrates, many are expected to disappear over the coming years because of land

reclamation, water pollution, movement of sediments in the Yangtze River, and the

effects of tides and waves.

Another type of wetlands disappearing rapidly are the coastal salt flats. These are

frequently being converted to aquaculture. Under the 2007 strict national land

management and protection policy, the coastal salt flats have become targets forcoastal and offshore industrial zones. The Tianjin Development Zone is a clear case

in point, and similar industrial developments in Suzhou, Hangzhou and Zhujiang

deltas further threaten biodiversity (Zhang et al. 2006).

Another classical example of the destruction of natural wetlands is the case of the

Dian Lake near Kunming in southeastChina. In the 1940s this area had a water body

area of 320 km2, a wetland area of 100 km2, plus some 200 km2 of rice fields.

However, rapid urban expansion and agricultural development have converted this

area into the largest horticultural area of South East Asia. In addition, water quality

has degraded because of waste water and ore waste due to the large-scale phosphate

mining.Thus the rapid loss of the natural wetland in China, due to conversion to

agriculture, industrial development, urbanisation, aquaculture, etc is a serious threat

to biodiversity and wildlife (Liu et al. 2004).To compensate for the loss of natural

wetlands, a common practice is to construct artificial wetlands. To test whether

artificial wetlands, as habitats for water birds are good alternative to natural

wetlands, Ma et al. (2004) compared species richness, abundance and seasonal

dynamics of water bird communities of natural (tidal areas) and artificial

(aquaculture ponds) wetlands on Chongming Island. The results of their research

indicated that the habitat preference of water birds showed seasonal differences:

most of the shorebirds were found on tidelands in spring, whereas most of thenatatorial birds were recorded in aqua cultural ponds in winter. Water birds

preferred the tidelands rather than aqua cultural ponds in both spring and autumn.

They conclude that natural wetlands are better habitats for water birds than artificial

wetlands on Chongming Island. The water birds only use artificial wetlands when

natural wetlands are unavailable or of poor quality.

Avian Influenza and the spread of diseases

Due to the changes in climate and ecosystems, there are serious challenges to

scientists to study the global spread of emerging diseases such as SARS, AvianInfluenza (bird flu), dengue fever as well as the more traditional ones of malaria.



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Especially in China, with its large territory, the spread of bird flu, caused by the

movement of migratory birds is causing increasing concern. Globally, there are some

seven major routes followed by the birds on their way to the Arctic (Figure 6).

As can be seen, three of these routes cross China. To protect and monitor the

population of the migratory birds and plot their movements on their trip south from

North Earth Asia, the Chinese government has set up a series of protected ecologicalzones and national parks in the Yellow River delta, northern Jiangsu beaches,

Chongming Island, Zhejiang, Nanji island, Poyong Lake in Jiangxi Province,

Xiamen, Shenzhen and Hong Kong (Xiapu). Figure 7 is a Landsat TM image

segment of Poyang Lake, taken on 23 September 2000. This is one of the main

wetland national parks specifically for migratory birds.

Research results (during the period 20012005) from the monitoring of the birds

as they fly south and then north again, showed that thousands of migratory birds

were infected by the bird flu. When they congregate back in the Arctic area, they

further spread the disease amongst themselves and then distribute it along the other

global migratory routes across Europe to Africa and other parts of the world.(seeFigure 6) The Digital Earth concept, looking at such effects at a multi- scale level,

and using multiple sources of data and integrated technologies such as remote

sensing ( to map some of the physical parameters such as soil temperature, humidity,

evaporation rates, thermal inertia, vegetation indices, land use mapping) and GIS

(for studying the spatial relationships, time-series modelling and production of

alternative scenarios) can help prepare the strategy for a preparedness plan to

combat the emergence and spread of such diseases. The research result presented by

Oyana et al. in 2006, showing the spatiotemporal distribution of the reported cases

of the Avian Influenza H5N1 in southern China during 2004, illustrate this

approach.

Figure 6. Map showing the global routes of migratory birds.



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Tibet Plateau uplift and subtropical monsoon climate (Zones 3 and 4 of Figure 2)

The uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau fundamentally changed the climate and

ecological patterns in the south east part of the Eurasian continent. The uplifted

Qinghai Tibet Plateau (Zone 3 on Figure 2) formed an Alpine permafrost plateau

climate region, dotted with glaciers and frozen soil, inland lakes and grasslands, and

the Himalayas, which formed a monsoon climate barrier from the Indian ocean. This

allowed the Western Pacific monsoon to have access to a much larger area of Eastern

China,the Korean peninsula and Japan. (Zhang D.F. 2000).

As a result, the area south of the Yellow River (Zone 4 in Figure 2) is not desert

as are other areas of the world at a similar latitude, but instead, because of the El

Nino effects, mixed forest now cover previously existing desert basins. This hasresulted in it becoming one of the worlds green areas, thereby enabling the area to

Figure 7. Landsat TM image (bands 5,4, 30RGB) of Poyang Lake, taken on 23 September

2000. (Image courtesy of CEODE).



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sustain a high population density, because of the high agricultural production

capacity (Clark et al. 2004). For example, the Sichuan Basin, West Lake Basin and

the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas are regions, with high agricultural productivity

and economic prosperity, compared to other regions in the world at the same

latitude. This zone has also allowed the growth of some of the worlds largest cities.

The Qinghai- Tibet Plateau, because of its altitude, acts as the Water Tower of

Southeast Asia, as most of the large trans-national rivers originate here. The

recently complete Qinghai Tibet railway line, the worlds highest railroad, was one

of the first major infrastructure projects where an environmental impact assessment

(EIA) was carried out prior to construction, in order to protect the environment and

ecology of the region. Issues such as the permafrost, protection of the grasslands and

the movements of the Tibet antelope were taken into consideration (Li et al. 2007).

Results of detailed remote sensing research in this area has shown that the

number of lakes larger than 2 km2 on the Plateau have increased from 200 to 800

over the past few decades. At the same time, temporal monitoring of satellite imagery

of this region has shown the number and size of the glaciers to be decreasing Dai et

al. (2007) have shown by means of a long time series of NOAA-AVHRR data that

despite all the environmental protection measures, the area of grasslands is

decreasing, areas of deserts are increasing. Fielding (1996) has also provided a

detailed geological account of the uplift and erosion of the Tibet Plateau region.

Sea-level rise

Most of the worlds population is located near the coastal zone, and many major

cities are below 50 m above sea-level. Hence, sea-level rise, coupled with land

subsidence are a major concern to Global Change researchers (Javier-Diez 2000).The

Delta works in the Netherlands are well-known as an example of an infrastructure

project to protect the country from sea-level rise. Similarly, the tidal protection

embankment in Venice is an example of an infrastructure project to protect the city

from flooding as a result of land subsidence.

The Division of Earth Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences organised a

team of experts to conduct a comprehensive survey on sea level changes since the

Quaternary period. This survey was conducted from 1999 to end of 2002. The results

of the survey showed that along Chinas 18 000 km long coastline, some parts of the

coastal zone were rising, whilst in other places they were sinking. This is also

reported by other international researchers (Fyfe. et al. 1999). Hence, it is importantto consider not only the influence of melting of Polar ice-caps when studying sea

level rise, but also long term geological influences which still cause many shorelines

around the world to rise higher above sea level (Douglas and Pelther 2002). See also

Figure 2, which shows those parts of the Chinese coastline being up lifted.

The Yellow River Delta has seen an annual increase in the land area of 23km2

since 1855. Land reclamation from the sea has resulted in a large increase of fertile

agricultural land. In addition, oil extraction from land areas is nine times cheaper

than oil extraction offshore. The Shengli oil field in the Yellow River Delta and

Bohai sea area is using this fact to aid in oil production. Similarly, large areas of the

sea are being reclaimed in the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas (Huang et al. 2004,Chen and Stanley 1998).



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However, the rapid process of urbanisation, resulting in the establishment of

large cities in the alluvial delta plains, have resulted in land subsidence, due to

extraction of ground water, coupled with other local factors such as geology (Chen

and Wang 1999). Most of the large cities being affected by land subsidence, such

as Shanghai and Tianjin are being closely monitored and controlled by a dense

network of levelling and GPS stations together with the use of differential SAR

interferometry, especially by the Permanent Scatterer/INSAR technique. In Suzhou,

this method is used to artificially recharge the groundwater level, to prevent further

land subsidence.

It is the Digital Earth approach of coupling global studies of sea-level changes

with the detailed, sub-centimeter level measurements at the local level of individual

cities that offer the best solution to a better understanding of the issues involved, so

that the decision makers can plan appropriate measures such as infrastructure

projects, re-siting of facilities etc., to minimise the impact of such changes.

Conclusions

The Digital Earth approach uses a variety of earth observation data from the global

to the local scale, including information of the solid earth, of the global atmospheric

circulation patterns, and detailed GPS data, which provide the Global Change

community with a wealth of quantitative data for modelling global changes. By using

quantitative spatial analysis methods, Digital Earth allows a deeper understanding

of the global change mechanisms, allowing us to evaluate global change regional

responses and zonal characteristics caused by the earths rotation. Furthermore, the

Digital Earth approach enables us to display and demonstrate the global change

mechanisms and their temporal effects, in order for decision makers to make betterregional and global based environmental protection schemes.

The research results of global change studies in the various latitudinal zones of

China lead to the conclusion that the changes occurring are a complex mixture of

naturally occurring processes and man-induced effects. Hence, the authors propose

that the communities involved in Digital Earth modelling and Global Change

research, cooperate closer to overcome the limitations inherent in the current

conventional scientific approach where scientists have typically stayed within their

respective scientific boundaries. Such an integrated approach will enable us to build

the next level of scientific infrastructure required to understand and predict naturally

occurring environmental changes, as well as that of coupled human-environmental

systems.

Chinese scientists play an active role in many international research programmes

and projects in the field of Digital Earth and Global Change studies, such as IGBP,

IPCC, ISDE, Global Mapping, GSDI, Planet Action, to name but a few. It is only by

means of such international co-operation that the research results of the local

changes described in this paper occurring in the various Latitudinal Zones of Global

changes, can be placed in a global context, as they impact other regions on the Earth.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the many Chinese researchers who have contributed their research

results to this study. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Centre for



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Earth Observation and Digital Earth in Beijing, which kindly provided many of the satellite

images used to illustrate the global change aspects.

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http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/subjects/en/health/diseases-cards/migrationmap.html

About the authors

Shupeng Chen, born in 1920, graduated from Zhejiang University with an MSc

degree in 1947. Professor Chen has initialised research into automated cartography,

remote sensing and geographic information systems. Currently his main research

interests are in earth observation, geoinformation science and Digital Earth. He is an

Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1980), Fellow of the Third WorldAcademy of Sciences (1992) and Academician of the International Eurasian

Academy of Sciences (1993). He has published several books, including one on

Geoinformation Science and Digital Earth(2005), as well as some atlases and

dictionaries. These have won him over 30 national and international awards,

including the national Award on Distinguished contribution to China (1991),special

Golden Award for environmental Science (1993), the O.M. Miller Cartographic

Award from the American Geographical Society (1998) and the Carl Mannerfelt

Gold Medal from the International Cartographical Society (2001).

John van Genderen has been carrying out remote sensing research and projects in

many parts of China for more than thirty years. During this long period he haswitnessed and participated in the rapid developments in earth observation in the

country. He has organised many training courses, workshops, seminars and

conferences in China to promote the understanding of basic remote sensing theory

and technology, by coupling this with problem solving in several major applications

of global change. He has hosted numerous Chinese MSc., PhD and post-doctoral

scholars at the ITC and has been involved in the Digital Earth movement since the

first International Symposium held in Beijing in 1999. His major research field is

earth observation data fusion.


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