10th Digital Earth Summit

The International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE) was founded in Beijing China in 2004. It is an international organization mainly promoting academic exchange, science and technology innovation, education, and international collaboration in Digital Earth. Digital Earth refers to the representation of our planet earth in a digital form, enabling us to model its core systems, including its cultural and social aspects represented by human societies living on the planet. The model can be represented at multiple dimensions, scales, times with different layers of information. Digital Earth is envisaged as a common platform to support national and international cooperation for global sustainable development, and a newly developing point of economic growth and social well-being. Since 1999, ISDE has been organizing several summits and symposia across the Globe with the aim to support global, regional, and national agendas.

Application of science, technology, and innovation, including the recent advances in artificial intelligence (especially Artificial Geospatial Intelligence), machine learning, and computer vision, are globally recognized as key drivers of national and international socio-economic transformations. Over the past two decades, the development of infrastructure for communication and ICT-enabled development strategies have played a major role in the proliferation of use of science and information technologies in decision making in Rwanda. In 2005, the Rwandan Cabinet approved the National Policy on Science, Technology, and Innovation to start an actionable plan towards a knowledge-based economy. To develop a Geo-IT ecosystem towards sustainable development, the Government of Rwanda has put in place several institutions such as Rwanda Space Agency (RSA) and the National University of Rwanda with mandates to oversee and build capacities respectively. Therefore, as a Geo-ICT and MICE hub, the country has been successfully hosting several events and the trend is expected to increase in the future thanks to several initiatives including institutional arrangement, adequate hospitality infrastructure, security, waving Visa fees for all African Countries among others.

The 10th edition of the Digital Earth Summit will take place from 19th to 22nd November 2024 at Kigali Convention and Exhibition Village (KCEV), Kigali, Rwanda. Under the umbrella of “Digital Intelligence to Sense our Planet and Sustain its Future", the summit will cover themes aligned with the Geo-ICT for Sustainable Development Goals:

• Digital Twin Technologies for Sustainable Development;
• Artificial Geospatial Intelligence for Sustainable Use of Natural Resources;
• Geo-ICT Technology for Sustainable Development Goals;
• Advances and Trends in Earth Observation for Digital Transformation;
• Digital Earth for Socio-economic Transformation;
• Geospatial Technologies for Sustainable Energy, Geo-resources, and Land-use for sustainable future.
• Geospatial Technologies for Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources Management;
• Machine Learning for Earth System Modeling, Climate Sciences, and Rural-Urban Transformations.

Why join the 10th edition of the Digital Earth Summit?
The summit will bring together around 600 researchers and practitioners in different areas related to digital earth from different regions of the world. In addition, we expect to attract more than 30 international companies which will come to exhibit their products in geospatial technology. The participation to the summit as a delegate, a presenter, a speaker, or an exhibitor would be a good opportunity to showcase your innovative ideas or development projects and to learn from a wide range of experts from across the Globe.

How to participate?
The 10th edition of the Digital Earth Summit is open to all actors in Geo-ICT across the globe. You can submit your abstract covering one of the mentioned 8 themes via the submission link.