The study of geographical environment characteristics and evolution rules is an important scientific support for recognizing the international geopolitical situation and safeguarding national security. Since 21 century, the rise of frequency and influence of all kinds of geopolitical events causes a serious threat to China's geopolitical safety and implementation of "the Belt and Road Initiative". The occurrence of geopolitical events is the result of interaction of various geo-environmental factors. The analysis of the evolution process of multi-dimensional geopolitical elements is an important basis for simulation and early warning of geo-risk. This paper reviews the origin and historical progress of the research on geo-environment both at home and abroad, systematically combs the main observation means of geo-environmental factors, and sums up application results of big data technology in the field of geo-environment research. Research shows that single geopolitical events have a high degree randomness, but the occurrence of massive events is affected by various geo-environment factors. Based on geo-environment system theory, the paper describes the complex relationship between geographical environment factors by using a large data analysis method, which helps to solve the problem of specific geographical. Finally, the paper suggests that the future geo-environment research should be guided by the geo-environment system theory and uses big data mining and machine learning technology to construct a spatiotemporal simulation and intelligent analysis model of geo-environment.

geographical environment  /  big data  /  information mining  /  machine learning