The state key laboratory of resources and environmental information system (LREIS), relying on the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is one of the earliest state key laboratories in China. LREIS is dedicated to the research of basic theories and core technologies of earth information science and geographic information system and to the development of major industry application system and "Data-model-software-system" integrated earth information science research system. The laboratory promotes significantly the development of earth information science in China by discipline orientation, application demonstration and talent training.

　　The laboratory was established in 1985. In 1986, the main laboratory building was completed, the VAX 11-785 subminiature computer system and world-class software and hardware systems (e.g., Arc/Info and I2S) were imported and put into operation, and the first national research project on geographic information system, i.e., experiments of resources and environmental information system, was launched. In 1987, the laboratory passed the national acceptance and officially opened to the publics.

Previous directors of the academic committee:

　　    Director of the 1st and 2nd academic committee (1987-1996): academician Shupeng Chen, geographer;

　　  Director of the 3rd and 4th academic committee (1996-2005): academician Guanhua Xu, resource remote sensing scientist;

　　    Director of the 5th academic committee (2006-2009): academician Jiulin Sun, resource information scientist;

　　  Director of the 6th academic committee (2010-2015): academician Guanhua Xu, resource remote sensing scientist;

　　    Director of the 7th academic committee (2015-present): academician Yuanxi Yang, geodeticist.

Previous laboratory directors:

　　    The 1st laboratory director (1987-1991): academician Shupeng Chen, geographer;

　　    The 2nd laboratory director (1991-1996): Jianbang He, academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences and expert in geographic information system and computer automatic mapping;

　　    The 3rd and 4th laboratory director (1996-2005): Chenghu Zhou, academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences and expert in geographic information system;

　　    The 5th laboratory director (2006-2009): research professor Jiyuan Liu, chief scientist of the national 973 program and expert in resources and environmental remote sensing and geographic information system; research professor Gaohuan Liu, expert in resources and environmental remote sensing and geographic information system;

　　    The 6th laboratory director (2010-2015): Chenghu Zhou, academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences and expert in geographic information system;

　　   The 7th laboratory director (2015-present): research professor Fenzhen Su, expert in marine geographic information system and coastal remote sensing.

　　LREIS has been focusing on the national key research tasks and international cooperation, and promoting the development of earth information science. It has undertaken more than 300 national projects such as 973, 863, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Knowledge Innovation Major Projects of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, involving researches in spatial analysis and environment simulation, spatial pattern mining and geographic knowledge discovery, frontier technologies and software systems of earth information science, data integration and sharing, major industry applications and demonstrations in resources and environmental information system, and so on. The laboratory has published more than 130 academic monographs and atlas and more than 2,100 academic papers; formulated 17 national, military and industrial standards; developed a series of software systems with intellectual property rights, such as the SuperMap, massive spatial database management system, and spatial analysis model system; applied for more than 70 patents and obtained more than 160 software copyrights; established the data sharing infrastructure of earth system science and the resources and environment data sharing platform of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; and won dozens of national and provincial science and technology awards, including 1 second prize of the national natural science, 9 second prizes of national science and technology progress, and a number of provincial and ministerial science and technology progress awards. LREIS has nearly 200 master and PhD students and postdoctors.