## 5 Discussion and Conclusions  
Currently, forest fires are one of the most serious challenges for forest development and protection efforts in Vietnam and efforts towards forest fire prevention have necessarily become increasingly focused [36]. The Forest Protection Department has several possible sources of forest fire information that can be collected relatively effectively (e.g., from local forest rangers, and from remote sensing stations). The use of remote sensing technology in forest fire monitoring by the Forest Protection Department mainly involves the use of thermal channels of low-resolution satellite images with a high frequency of observation. However, the development of more reliable information about forest fires  
Figure 11: The user interface of the software (**a**) and the forest fire warning website (**b**). systems requires interdisciplinary cooperation between experts in a range of different disciplines. The research has integrated modern technologies including identifying areas of forest fire risk, the early warning of forest fires, monitoring forest fires (fire point system), damage assessment (in terms of fire area) and the dispersal of results (via WebGIS). The forest fire information system developed here has advantages compared to other systems. Specifically, the forest fire forecast function is improved by using and combining various meteorological data sources, including the meteorological data collected from ground points and the meteorological data from satellites. All the information about fires and fire forecasting is presented on an interactive map interface using uniform GIS technology. Nevertheless, the use of these results in daily forest management and protection still faces some limitations due to delays in conveying the results due to constraints relating to satellite observation frequency and the transfer of results may be slow or lack specific information due to district administrative procedures. Notwithstanding such challenges, the results are of considerable practical value because the system integrates existing tools to provide information at each stage of risk assessment, warning, and fire point notification to damage assessment. Furthermore, this information is integrated into a system capable of providing fast information (web-based) and capable of searching and attributing data both spatially and temporally (due to possible storage and search functions over time). The results show that the integration of GIS technology and multi-indicator analysis tools (MCA) with layers of information related to forest fire risk, such as humidity, wind direction, forest type, slope, slope direction, stream density, slope, distance to residence, main roads, trails, etc., allows for the construction of reliable fire risk maps. The comparison of model results with historical data confirms the accuracy and reliability of the system. The application of the semi-quantitative AHP method and the expert systems approach in the evaluation is shown to be a valuable additional element and this is especially helpful in developing a real-time early warning system. The results provide forest fire risk maps at the district and commune-level administrative unit scale to enable effective forest fire prevention in Son La. In addition, the results of the project contribute to an understanding of how the science and technology applications of remote sensing and GIS can be integrated with expert knowledge to improve forest management. Rapid development of freely available remote sensing data with high resolution and repeatability has resulted in its adoption towards a wide range of applications, including forest fire monitoring and prevention. There are many opportunities to use remote sensing data in the management and monitoring of natural resources, including forest resources.