SINFO (Sistema INformativo FOrestale) is an information system developed for users working in the field of forests fire management. 
It offers forests and fires data management, cartography, satellite data, orthophoto management and on field data acquistion, with automatic coordinate acquisition (via GPS)

SINFO system consist of:

- SINFO Pad

A mobile station, with integrated GPS, that allow direct acquisition of field data.

- SINFO Station

A fixed workstation that manage the whole geographic database and EO database.

Before the acquisition of data on field, the user can select the area of interest with a graphical interface, and transfer the data onto SINFO Pad. The system on the workstation cuts the study area, creates the partial dataset and then transfers the geographical and attribute data to SINFO Pad.

After the acquisition of data on field, the user can transfer the data collected to the SINFO Station by wired link. While uploading data from the SINFO Pad to the SINFO Station, the system verifies the data and updates the changed and new ones.

The System is based on PK Grafo (the GIS software developed by Planetek Italia and currently used by Regione Puglia forest authority). The system has been designed to manage both the AIB cards and the BSM products generated by the European Space Agency.

The operational utilization of the BSM activities from the Regional Government will be largely enhanced by the automation of the on site data gathering, and by the accurate forest land-cover generated by VAMPIRE II activities.

In the framework of the VAMPIRE I and II projects, different products are generated, and managed inside the SINFO system.

Those product are:

- Regione Puglia Land Use Map

- Forest Map

- Hot Spot Map

- Fire Risk Map

- Burned Area Map

SINFO Pad is the mobile station, with integrated GPS, that allows direct acquisition of field data, associating attribute data to precise GPS coordinate.

Before the acquisition of data on field, the user can select the area of interest with a graphical interface on SINFO Station, and transfer the data onto SINFO Pad.

The SINFO system cuts the study area, creates the partial dataset and transfers the geographical and attribute data to SINFO Pad.

This mobile terminal supports all the layers available in SINFO Station (naturally with limited geographical extent) so that EO data too may be available during on field activities.

Facilities are also avilable in SINFO Pad to associate and edit attribute of existing geographical data.

The system is based on a commercial standard PDA (Persona Digital Assistant) such as Cassiopeia E105, Compaq iPAQ, etc.

SINFO Station allows the GIS analysis between all the geographical data of the system. This module enables the user to analyze the geographical data, to insert new data, to compare the geographical data with EO data, to analyze the results and to plan and to manage the forest fires data.

After the acquisition of data on field, the user can transfer the data collected to the SINFO Station by wired link. While uploading data from the SINFO Pad to the SINFO Station, the system verifies the data and updates the changed and new ones.

This module allows to put in the burned areas and verify the burned areas against EO data too. The system available at Region Puglia central office detects suspect burned area using rough EO data classification.

The users of the SINFO Station have the capability to identify the burned area with automatic detection based on rough EO data classification. 
ER Mapper image processing software has been used for this application, providing an algorithm that automates the image classification and the burned area identification.

The System handles large raster dataset using ER Mapper`s ECW compression format with real time responding of the system. 
ECW, the tool that allows to speed up the use of raster data, is a new technology of raster data compression that enables to compress imagery by 10:1 up to 50:1, dramatically reducing the size of images while retaining high quality.

Thanks to this instrument, the system can manage a large image (more than 1TB, 1.000 GigaBytes).
The System can use both vector and raster geographical data (e.g. the whole Puglia coverage for all layers, 1 meter orthophoto images and different Earth Observation data such as Landsat ETM, IKONOS Multispectral). VAMPIRE II is the extension of the VAMPIRE (Value Added Multilayer Products Integration in Real Environment) project. VAMPIRE I and II have been developed by Planetek Italia and founded by European Space Agency (ESA ESRIN).

The main objective of VAMPIRE II is to enhance forest authorities` systems for Decision Support for fire emergency management, integrating satellite data and on field data in order to obtain precise information about forested areas and a model for the forest fire risk assessment.

In the framework of the VAMPIRE II project a system, named SINFO (Sistema INformativo Forestale, Forest Information System) has been developed in order to provide users forests and fires data management, cartography, satellite data, orthophoto management and on field data collection, with automatic coordinate acquisition (via GPS).

As a matter of fact, following the new law schema released in September 1999 by the Italian Senate, that in article 3 formerly requests a fire protection plan to be revised annually, forest authority users have now the need to manage the fire related activities, and to have a tool that allows them to the collection of ground data, directly while they are in the field.

The final user of VAMPIRE II products and SINFO system is the Agriculture and Forest Department of Regione Puglia, a public local administration. This authority already uses a system for forest management based on PK Grafo (a GIS software for forest management developed by Planetek Italia).

In order to supply to Regione Puglia a final product useful to distinguish different type of forest when doing field work after fire events, a Landuse map of the whole region has been produced. 
This map, together with other cartographics product, has been used inside SINFO to improve the Decision Support System for forest fire management.