Digital Earth Challenges and Future Trends

The previous 25 chapters introduced relevant technologies, applications, and other topics related to Digital Earth. Respective challenges and future research were also proposed by various authors. In this concluding chapter, we briefly review Digital Earth past and present, followed by a set of challenges and future trends, speculating on how Digital Earth may evolve over the coming years. Such challenges and trends are discussed in the context of science drivers, technological advances, application adoption, and relevant virtual--physical community building.