Since the former Vice President Al Gore of the United States delivered a speech entitled "The Digital Earth: Understanding our planet in the 21st Century" at California Science Center, Los Angeles, on January 31, 1998, the vision of digital earth was of great interest worldwide. On Nov 29th to Dec. 2nd 1999, China initiated the first International symposium on Digital Earth (ISDE) in Beijing, sponsored by 19 ministries and organizations. More than 500 delegates of Chinese and foreign scholars, experts and entrepreneurs from 27 countries attended the symposium, and the Chinese government gave great support to this event. The former vice premier Li Lanqing attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. At the closing ceremony, a Beijing Declaration on Digital Earth was announced. The Declaration emphasized the necessity of Digital Earth and called for more future developments at a global level, and suggested to hold the International Symposium on Digital Earth every two years and in a rotated country basis. In a special session before the closing ceremony, symposium participants agreed to establish an International Steering Committee on the Symposium chaired by Prof. Lu Yongxiang, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In April 2000, the International Steering Committee of the International Symposium on Digital Earth was formally established. On the leadership of the International Steering Committee, the following successive symposiums were held in Canada (2001), Czech Republic (2003), and Japan (2005).

In June 2001, the 2nd ISDE was successfully held in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. The Theme of the symposium was: Beyond Information Infrastructure. More than 200 delegates from 30 countries attended the symposium. Delegates focused on 25 main topics including vision and concepts of Digital earth, virtual reality, Standards and interoperability, Examples of using the Digital Earth concept to solve real-world problems related to environmental protection, disaster management, natural resource conservation, Examples of using the digital Earth concept to achieve or improve sustainable economic and social development, Real-world examples of using the Digital Earth concept to improve the quality of life of the humankind etc.

The 3rd ISDE was held in Brno, Czech Republic in September 2003. About 250 delegates from 34 countries participated the symposium. The theme of the symposium was "Digital Earth: Information Resources for Global Sustainability". The delegates had in depth discussion on a varity of issues, such as Data, Information, Knowledge, Technologies and Techniques, Global Sustainability, Concepts and Debates, Global Society Dialogue, A Networked Knowledge Society, Delivering Services to Citizens, From Web to Mobile, Digital Cities, Communities and Localities.

The 4th ISDE was taken place in Tokyo in March 2005. 345 delegates from 36 countries attended the symposium. The theme was "Digital Earth as a Global Commons" It ranged from visions on Digital Earth to geo-informatics, remote sensing, and wireless communication technologies as fundamentals for information infrastructures, Case studies on integrated systems and information sharing in applications for civil services and policy making support systems etc. The delegates shared the key advances, innovative solutions and best practices of Digital Earth technologies, and enjoyed the exhibitions from 26 exhibiters showing the most advanced technologies for the solution of the Digital Earth.

In the Steering Committee Meeting of the 4th ISDE, It was voted to have the 5th ISDE in San Francisco in the United States of America in June 2007, and have a Digital Earth Summit for Sustainability in Auckland in April 2006. These will commit to bringing Digital Earth technology to all citizens of the planet, and to bringing together Geospatial Communities, the world's intellectual leaders and International advocates to advance our collective understanding of the important topic and its relationship and role in furthering the goals and focus of the Digital Earth community.

In order to promote the Digital Earth's healthy development and international cooperation, rather than only organizing International symposiums, it was consented by the members of the International Steering of ISDE to establish an International Society for Digital Earth (also ISDE in short). With the support of Chinese government, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Sciences and Technology of China, the ISDE has been officially registered in the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China. The ISDE is a non-political, non-governmental and not-for-profit international organization, principally for promotion of academic exchange, science and technology innovation, education, and international collaboration. The purpose of the society is to promote international cooperation on the Digital Earth vision, and enable the Digital Earth technology to play key roles inter alia, in economic and social sustainable development, environmental protection, disaster mitigation, natural resources conservation and improvement of human beings'  living standard.

The official launch of ISDE was held on May 21, at the National Library of Chinese Academy of Sciences. With the establishment of ISDE, the Digital Earth will be developed full of vigour and it will have a brilliant prospect.