From Nov. 29th to Dec. 2nd 1999, China initiated the first International Symposium on Digital Earth(ISDE) in Beijing, sponsored by 19 ministries and other organizations. It was the first international symposium focused on Digital Earth. More than 500 delegates, including Chinese and foreign scholars, experts and entrepreneurs from 27 countries, exchanged ideas about the conceptualization, relevant theories and technologies, and applications and potentials of Digital Earth. view papers and presentations from symposium 1999

	The 2nd ISDE was held on 24th to 28th June, 2001, in Canada, with more than 200 delegates from 30 countries attending. Its theme was "beyond information infrastructure". Twenty five topics, such as the understanding of Digital Earth, Digital Earth's support of information infrastructure, virtual reality, data standards and interoperability, and spatial data warehousing were discussed. view papers and presentations from symposium 2001

		The 3rd ISDE was held from 21 to 25, September, 2003, in the Czech Republic, with more than 250 attendees from 34 countries. Its theme was " Information Resources for Global Sustainability " . Topics of collective concern, such as global sustainable development, global dialog between civil societies, the society of cyber knowledge, data, information, and techniques, were focused during the symposium. view papers and presentations from symposium 2003

The 4th ISDE was held from 28 to 31 March, 2005, in Japan, with 345 attendees form 36 countries. It was organized by Keio University, Japan. Its theme was "Digital Earth as a Global Commons ". There were 25 topics, from the concept to in-depth, discussed during the symposium. view papers and presentations from symposium 2005

	The Auckland Summit was the first opportunity to focus Digital Earth's extraordinary resources towards specific issues of sustainability in partnership with New Zealand's leaders to achieve its sustainability goals. Defining sustainability as humankind's collective survival goals means that there is no better objective for New Zealand's collective efforts.
	view papers and presentations from the Auckland Summit

 

The 5th ISDE was held from 5th to 9th June, 2007, in the University of California, Berkeley, USA, with 390 delegates from 28 countries representing different governments, academic agencies, industries, NGO and private organizations. The five days of ISDE5 represent a rich convergence of technological advance, active visionaries and recognition of the paramount need for humans to better understand the Earth. view papers and presentations from symposium 2007