Digital Earth is a virtual representation of the planet, encompassing all its systems and forms, both natural environment and human societies, manifested as a multi-dimensional, multi-scale, multi-temporal, and multi-layer information facility. Digital Earth is the framework for geographically linked research and applications in the physical and social domains of the Earth, a digital modeling platform to monitor, measure, and forecast natural and human activity on the planet, and a visualization of the world. It is three-dimensional, four-dimensional if a temporal monitoring component is added, and even five-dimensional if scale is treated as a variable instead of a set of discrete steps. As a global initiative, Digital Earth aims to improve social conditions, protect the environment, and support future sustainable development.
The International Journal of Digital Earth is a response to this initiative. This peer-reviewed academic journal (SCI-E) focuses on the theories, technologies, applications, and societal implications of Digital Earth and those visionary concepts that will enable a modeled virtual world. The journal encourages papers that:
Progress visions for Digital Earth frameworks, policies, and standards;
Explore geographically referenced 3D, 4D, or 5D models to represent the real planet, and geo-data-intensive science and discovery;
Develop methods that turn all forms of geo-referenced data, from scientific to social, into useful information that can be analyzed, visualized, and shared;
Present innovative, operational applications and pilots of Digital Earth technologies at a local, national, regional, and global level;
Expand the role of Digital Earth in the fields of Earth science, including climate change, adaptation and health related issues,natural disasters, new energy sources, agricultural and food security, and urban planning;
Foster the use of web-based public-domain platforms, social networks, and location-based services for the sharing of digital data, models, and information about the virtual Earth; and
Explore the role of social media and citizen-provided data in generating geo-referenced information in the spatial sciences and technologies.
For producing research papers to be published in the journal, the following associated technologies and fields of research may be relevant, but in all cases, should be clearly linked to the topics above or the general Digital Earth concept: Earth observation (including remote sensing and in situ sensors), geographic information systems and science, global navigation systems, information and communication technologies (ICT, including spatial data infrastructure and global databases), virtual reality and immersive technologies, visualization and numerical simulation, cloud computing and high performance computation, mobile mapping systems, empowering the community and engaging society, Earth-system science, and sustainable development.
The journal publishes primary research papers, review articles, and short technical letters on research that warrants fast publication. The journal also welcomes thoughtful outlook papers that can generate debate and catalyze ideas to advance the Digital Earth vision. In addition, special issues on specific topics of relevance to Digital Earth will be published to examine particular points in depth. The Journal is an official publication of the International Society for Digital Earth ( www.digitalearth-isde.org)

Editor-in-Chief: 

Guo Huadong – Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Executive Editor: 

Wang Changlin – Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
 
Assistant Editors: 
Liu Zhen & Guan Linlin – Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, CAS, China 

Letters Editor:
 
Anthony Lewis –   Louisiana State University, USA
   
Book Reviews Editor:
 
John L. van Genderen – International Institute for Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation (ITC), The Netherlands 
  
International Editorial Board:
 
Allesandro Annoni –  Institute for Environment and Sustainability, JRC, European Commision
Temenoujka Bandrova – University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Bulgaria 
Brian Brisco – Canada Centre for Remote Sensing, Ottawa, Canada 
Manfred Ehlers – University of Osnabrueck, Germany 
Hiromichi Fukui – Chubu University, Japan 
Yola Georgiadou – ITC, University of Twente, The Netherlands 
Michael Goodchild – University of California, Santa Barbara, USA 
Armin Gruen – Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland
Mazlan bin Hashim – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia 
Krzysztof Janowicz – University of California, Santa Barbara, USA 
Milan Konecny – Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Markku Kulmala – University of Helsinki, Finland
Mengxue Li - University of Maryland, USA
Xiaofeng Li - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA
Harvey J. Miller – Ohio State University, USA 
Konstantinos G. Perakis - University of Thessaly, Greece 
Martino Pesaresi – Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen, JRC, European Commission
François Pinet – Cemagref-Clermont Ferrand, France 
Abbas Rajabifard – University of Melbourne, Australia 
Gábor Remetey-Fülöpp – Hungarian Association for Geo-information (HUNAGI), Hungary 
David Rhind – City University, London, UK
Richard Simpson – Spatial Industries Business Association (SIBA), Australia
Qingxi Tong – Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
John Townshend - University of Maryland, USA
Cuizhen Wang – University of South Carolina, USA
Lizhe Wang - Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth,Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Peter Woodgate - Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information, Australia
Yong Xue - London Metropolitan University, London, UK 
Liming Yang – USGS EROS Center, USA 
Terence van Zyl – African Advanced Institute for Information and Communications Technology, South Africa