Virtual Fire is a web-based early warning and decision support system for integrated forest fire control, based on geo-informatics and information technology (IT) modeling.
Interaction between users and the system is conducted by a Silverlight application, implemented by utilizing the ESRI ArcGIS Application Programming Interface (API)for Silverlight.
The application requires the installation of the Silverlight plug-in at the client's web browser, only for the first time of usage.
The software components of ArcCatalog and ArcMap are
used for the creation and managing of all the necessary spatial data.
Data are uploaded into a geo-database and published as GIS web ser-
vices through the ArcGIS Server. Several external data sources are also
integrated. These include Bing Maps services (imagery, geocoding and
routing), Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds and real time weather data.
To retrieve the external data, several protocols have been used. More
specifically, the HTTP protocol is used to consume the Bing Maps ser-
vices, while the GeoRSS3 protocol is used for the manipulation of the
RSS live feeds. For real-time monitoring of the weather data, services
have been implemented by using the Windows Communication Foun-
dation (WCF).
Fire ignition probability maps and weather maps based on forecast
weather data are produced daily, based on an HPC (Vecchiola et al.,
2009) pilot application. Fig. 2 shows the components used in the Virtual
Fire application. The in-house developed components are visualized in
red background color, while the existing commercial components are
visualized in yellow background. With a few on-screen actions, users
can utilize the services provided by interacting through a user-
friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI). The GUI was developed based
on end-user's goals, skills, experience and needs of using the platform
by the local Fire Department personnel. Anonymous users can only
visualize maps (except topographic maps), but in order to utilize all
available tools and services users must be authorized with a password.
The interface enables users to easily turn on/off several map layers, to
visualize points of interest or other useful information over them and
to access a rich toolbox that contains geo-processing tools and several
natural disaster related modules (Fig. 1).