Proceedings Article | 15 August 2007
KEYWORDS: Databases, Geographic information systems, Data storage, Remote sensing, Computing systems, Data modeling, Computer simulations, 3D modeling, Data acquisition, Information fusion
Former studies on mountain system are focused on the department or subject characters, i.e. different department and
branches of learning carry out researches only for their individual purposes and with individual characters of the subject
of interests. As a whole, their investigation is lacking of comprehensive study in combination with global environment.
Ecological environment in mountain regions is vulnerable to the disturbance of human activities. Therefore, it is a key
issue to coordinate economic development and environment protection in mountain regions. On the other hand, a lot of
work is ongoing on mountain sciences, especially depending on the application of RS and GIS. Moreover, the
development of the Digital Earth (DE) provides a clue to re-understand mountains. These are the background of the
emergence of the Digital Mountains (DM). One of the purposes of the DM is integrating spatial related data and
information about mountains. Moreover, the DM is a viewpoint and methodology of understanding and quantifying
mountains holistically. The concept of the DM is that, the spatial and temporal data related to mountain regions are
stored and managed in computers; moreover, manipulating, analyzing, modeling, simulating and sharing of the mountain
information are implemented by utilizing technologies of RS, GIS, GPS, Geo-informatic Tupu, computer, virtual reality
(VR), 3D simulation, massive storage, mutual operation and network communication. The DM aims at advancing
mountain sciences and sustainable mountain development. The DM is used to providing information and method for
coordinating the mountain regions development and environment protection. The fundamental work of the DM is the design of the scientific architecture. Furthermore, construct and develop massive databases of mountains are the important steps these days.
