---
id: media/manual-of-digital-earth
about:
  label: Manual of Digital Earth
  description: >-
    Open-access reference edited by Guo, Goodchild and Annoni, 2020, on the
    vision, technologies and uses of a digital model of the whole planet.
  tags:
    - digital earth
    - remote sensing
    - geospatial
    - open access
    - reference
book:
  authors:
    - Huadong Guo (ed.)
    - Michael F. Goodchild (ed.)
    - Alessandro Annoni (ed.)
  publisher: Springer Singapore
  year: 2020
  isbn: '9789813299146'
  url: 'https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-32-9915-3'
domains:
  - places
  - climate
relations:
  - predicate: made_by
    target: people/michael-goodchild
provenance:
  origin: agent
  sources:
    - title: 'Open Library: Manual of Digital Earth'
      url: 'https://openlibrary.org/works/OL23499232W'
    - title: 'Open Library: Manual of Digital Earth (Springer Nature, 2020)'
      url: 'https://openlibrary.org/books/OL31369783M'
    - title: Crossref record for 10.1007/978-981-32-9915-3 (Manual of Digital Earth)
      url: 'https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1007/978-981-32-9915-3'
  created: '2026-10-17'
  reviewed: '2026-10-17'
  reviewed_by: 'Claude, from the sources listed'
  status: draft
---
The manual reviews twenty years of Digital Earth, the vision of a navigable model of the planet. It traces how the idea evolved and the technologies it depends on:

- Digital Earth platforms
- remote sensing and navigation satellites
- geospatial processing and visualisation
- spatial data infrastructures (shared systems for publishing and finding map data)
- big data and cloud computing
- artificial intelligence
- the Internet of Things
- social media

Later chapters cover Digital Earth in sustainable development, climate change and disaster response. Applications include digital cities and digital heritage. Further chapters deal with citizen science, economic value, regional and national programmes, education and ethics. The book closes with the open problems. It is open access.

The manual covers the planetary end of the scale. It also maps the geospatial infrastructure, data sources and standards that a twin of any place depends on.