Current situation, existent problems, trend and strategy of the construction of “Glass Earth”

“Glass Earth”, an effective carrier of geological spatiotemporal big data, is an exemplification of “Digital Earth” in the field of geology and mineral resources. The existent problems abroad in the construction of “Glass Earth” are mainly caused by the lack of overall planning, top-level design and coordination mechanism. Although the construction of stratigraphic framework models has been achieved, the hybrid modeling with multi-source, multi-subject information and multi-dimensional modeling method for complex geological structure characterized by rapidness, dynamic state, holography and meticulousness remains unrealized. What is more, the problem of integration of multi-scale geologic framework models remains unresolved. The development trend of “Glass Earth” will turn from the particular to the general, from the parts to the whole, from the function to the data, from the scattered to the integrated, and from a display tool to a practical system. As the construction of “Glass Earth” is of large-scale and covers a wide range of subjects, it has a consistent construction target with the state geological work informatization and “Smart Earth”. It is necessary to work out the unified planning and top-level design strategically and to bring the relevant digitization projects such as “Digital Land and Resources”, “Digital Mine”, “Digital Oil Field”, and “Digital Engineering” into a unified organizing framework and management.