CHENGHU ZHOU received his PhD from the Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, with a focus on Cartography and GIS. He is currently an Academician at the Chinese Academy of Science.FENZHEN SU completed his PhD in GIS and Cartography at the Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. He is currently Director of the State Key Lab of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.FRANCIS HARVEY completed his PhD at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. He has been head of the Department of Cartography and Visual Communication, Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, since 2015.JUN XU received his PhD in Geographical Information Systems from the Department of Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo. Her research interests are in the fields of geographical ontology, spatial knowledge representation and qualitative reasoning, and spatial data mining. She is now an Associate Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

• Big geographical data storage and search.- Data-intensive geospatial computing and data mining.- Visualization of big geographical data.- Multi-scale spatial data representations, data structures and algorithms.- Space-time modelling and analysi.- Geological applications of Big Data and multi-criteria decision analysis.

CHENGHU ZHOU received his PhD from the Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, with a focus on Cartography and GIS. He is currently an Academician at the Chinese Academy of Science.FENZHEN SU completed his PhD in GIS and Cartography at the Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. He is currently Director of the State Key Lab of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.FRANCIS HARVEY completed his PhD at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. He has been head of the Department of Cartography and Visual Communication, Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, since 2015.JUN XU received his PhD in Geographical Information Systems from the Department of Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo. Her research interests are in the fields of geographical ontology, spatial knowledge representation and qualitative reasoning, and spatial data mining. She is now an Associate Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

• Big geographical data storage and search.- Data-intensive geospatial computing and data mining.- Visualization of big geographical data.- Multi-scale spatial data representations, data structures and algorithms.- Space-time modelling and analysi.- Geological applications of Big Data and multi-criteria decision analysis.

CHENGHU ZHOU received his PhD from the Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, with a focus on Cartography and GIS. He is currently an Academician at the Chinese Academy of Science.FENZHEN SU completed his PhD in GIS and Cartography at the Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. He is currently Director of the State Key Lab of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.FRANCIS HARVEY completed his PhD at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. He has been head of the Department of Cartography and Visual Communication, Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, since 2015.JUN XU received his PhD in Geographical Information Systems from the Department of Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo. Her research interests are in the fields of geographical ontology, spatial knowledge representation and qualitative reasoning, and spatial data mining. She is now an Associate Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information Systems, Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

• Big geographical data storage and search.- Data-intensive geospatial computing and data mining.- Visualization of big geographical data.- Multi-scale spatial data representations, data structures and algorithms.- Space-time modelling and analysi.- Geological applications of Big Data and multi-criteria decision analysis.