This position paper is the outcome of a joint reflection by a group of international
geographic and environmental scientists from government, industry, and
academia brought together by the Vespucci Initiative for the Advancement of
Geographic Information Science, and the Joint Research Centre of the European
Commission. It argues that the vision of Digital Earth put forward by Vice President
Al Gore 10 years ago needs to be re-evaluated in the light of the many
developments in the fields of information technology, data infrastructures, and
earth observation that have taken place since. It focuses the vision on the next generation
Digital Earth and identifies priority research areas to support this
vision. The paper is offered as input for discussion among different stakeholder
communities with the aim to shape research and policy over the next 5-10 years.