Digital Earth Ecology After BDS + Gaofen Integration

“The era of aerospace big data has come,” said Wu Yirong, member of the national committee of CPPCC, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the president of Aerospace Information Research Institute, in the Seminar on Development of Digital Earth Industries hosted by AIRCAS and undertaken by GEOVIS. Currently, China’s acquisition ability of aerospace remote-sensing data has overtaken that ever before.

In recent years, the Digital Earth industry is burgeoning in China, with an ever-increasing industrial scale. The integration of such new-generation information technologies as AI, big data, cloud computing, 5G, as well as geographic information technology with the aerospace industry prompts new products, services and industries, providing a valuable opportunity for Digital Earth industrialization. All experts and scholars attending this seminar focused on scientific and technological innovation, industrial applications and policies of Digital Earth, and discussed about the future of the Digital Earth industry.

Internationally cutting-edge technologies centered on for technological self-reliance

“AIRCAS has long been centering on internationally cutting-edge technologies, and resourceful results regarding the theoretical research and technological development of Digital Earth,” said Deng Maicun, a former member and secretary-general of the leading party members group of the CAS, in the seminar. Since 2010, AIRCAS and GEOVIS have been jointly developing GEOVIS Digital Earth to improve the independent ability of research and development of core technologies related to Digital Earth, and the successful localization has catalyzed the industrialization of domestic Digital Earth.

“Digital Earth aims to build a digitalized earth that deeply integrates such new-generation information technologies as big data, cloud computing and AI, as well as geographic information technology with the aerospace industry.” described by Shao Zongyou when talking about Digital Earth. It harnesses several earth observation techniques such as remote sensing satellites and aerial photography to quickly acquire high-precision earth observation data, reconstruct 3D virtual earth framework based on a unified time-space datum, store and integrate space information from various industries as required in different industries, and solve pending application problems.

Undoubtedly, myriad data are the basis and core of Digital Earth. Wu said that, as of June this year, over 30 in-orbit high-resolution earth observation satellites have been sent to the space by China, providing daily hundreds of millions of square kilometers of images. He continued that, the new-generation Digital Earth is best characterized by the AI. “What was ever impossible becomes possible through man-machine coordination to construct a new intelligent application mode.”

“The coordinated development of ‘BDS + Gaofen’ is another outstanding feature in new-generation Digital Earth products, and constitutes an important part of national information infrastructure,” said Shao. New fields across different disciplines are gradually coming into being, with the development of navigation and remote sensing technologies that are subjected to mutual integration and influence, and the comprehensive application of aerospace information. The integration of BDS + Gaofen will greatly enhance the ability of Digital Earth in the description, management and analysis of global dynamic activities, further expand its application scenarios and boundaries, shore up and safeguard its industrial development that will be empowered with more motivating forces.

Wu Haitao, vice general engineer of BDS, also said that Digital Earth, as a supporting platform tying up satellite resources with ground-based industrial applications, gains an edge in promoting integrated BDS applications and coordinated industrial development.

Zhang Quande, vice president and secretary-general of GNSS & LBS Association of China, echoed the idea by saying “Everything has its position, to find it needs navigation. Time and space are integral parts in speeding up digital development and constructing a digital China. Therefore, the linchpin in the digital industrial development is to promote the application of precise BDS-based aerospace information.”

Accelerated transformation of technological achievements for coordinated innovation and development

GEOVIS is a state-owned AIRCAS-funded new- and high-tech enterprise founded in 2006, and is the first one undertaking the R & D and industrialization of Digital Earth.

Fu Kun, president of GEOVIS, said that, the Digital Earth System and the Digital Earth Platform - results of several years’ efforts - play an important role in supporting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and in the development of such fields as the response to climate change, disaster prevention and reduction, urban management, three-field agricultural integration (integration of agricultural production, processing of agricultural products and agriculture-related services) and ecological environmental protection, exerting great influence at home and abroad.

“Digital Earth has bright prospects in the field of meteorology,” said Sun Jian. The integration of BDS + Gaofen is likely to revolutionize the weather forecast. In the future, in face of the public who needs, collects and broadcasts meteorological information, the traditional acquisition of such information by professionals will be replaced by professional acquisition + social collection, and Digital Earth as an underlying platform will be indispensable.

In addition, several breakthroughs in the deepened application of aerospace information have been made in financial and monetary terms. Wei Zheng, secretary-general of China Association of Remote Sensing Application (CARSA) proposed that aerospace information will become a new source of local finance. “More economic benefits can be obtained by transforming traditional land finance into a digital one, because the latter can make circulate the data that was screened in the market.”

As the front runner in the innovative development of Digital Earth, GEOVIS always underscore the importance of integrating the innovation chain, the industry chain and the capital chain to accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, realizing coordinated innovation and development. In July 2020, GEOVIS was listed in the STAR Market, formally stepping in the capital market, where it is the largest shareholder in domestic Digital Earth industry. Since the first anniversary of the listing, GEOVIS has seen rapid development: more technological advantages, more diversified product line, especially the prodigious development and far-sighted layout in civil fields.

Shao Zongyou expressed on the first anniversary that, GEOVIS will indefatigably innovate its product system, provide users with support and experience in application of aerospace information that is more accurate, more vivid, more ubiquitous and more intelligent, co-build the BDS-Gaofen application ecology by servicing many sectors and fields involving emergency management, smart city, smart agriculture, smart water conservancy and other aspects with more cutting-edge empowering solutions, making contributions in building a more powerful aerospace industry.