Google Earth Software Application in Urban Design of China

Google Earth is a very popular virtual globe program, famous with providing abundant resources of remote sense images all over the world, which has been widely used in many industries. Therefore, the application of high resolution satellite image and the changing of Web to development tool of geographic information services are the directions of urban planning and design services in China. The thesis begins from the origin of Google Earth and changes Google Earth brings to us, and then introduces the usage of Google Earth in different vocations. Through summarizing the five character of Google Earth, which include convenient and rapid knowing the world in the home, scanning the world in another view, sharing place mark with other one, map layer management, and contrasting maps in different historical periods, the thesis exploration of the Google Earth application in different segments of urban design. Finally, it proposes the advantages of Google Earth application in urban design, which is useful to the reform of urban design in China.