In recent years, many researchers have been involved in the study of Tibet plateau. The development of

the remote sensing technology and more and more sophisticated DEM-based analytical methods has provided researchers

with a new means for studying Tibet plateau. This paper has briefly reviewed the history of applying DEM data to the

study of Tibet plateau. Based on studying several stages in using DEM data, the authors analyzed the methods for

data fusion of multi-sensor and the application of DEM data in many fields. It is pointed out that the

systematization of the research method, the deep extraction of information and the acquiring of high-precise data

seem to be the main tasks in future researches of this field. The problems that should be solved in future are also

discussed.