ABSTRACT
The concept of Digital Earth - the aspirational digital representation of our physical, social, and natural world - is introduced to serve as a critical digital infrastructure for proactively informing policy, investment, planning, design, and our behavioural responses to managing crisis situations, including pandemics. Spatial information has long been recognised as a critical enabler in the forensic management of infectious diseases ever since 1854 when Dr. John Snow, one of the founders of modern epidemiology, applied maps to trace the source of cholera outbreaks to a single contaminated pump in Broad St. Soho, London. The rapid urbanisation, easy mobility and dense interconnectivity of cities is creating environments where pandemics will thrive. Digital Earth is a multidisciplinary collaboration to build a comprehensive digital twin of our planet's built, natural and social environments. A Digital Earth is a critical digital infrastructure to ensure our future survival as it consolidates our collective knowledge and liberates new wisdom.
