Forest fires constitute a major environmental problem in tropical countries, especially in the context of climate change and increasing human populations. This paper aims to identify the causes of frequent forest fires in Son La Province, a fire-prone and forested mountainous region in northwest Vietnam, with a view to constructing a forest fire-related database with multiple layers of natural, social and economic information, extracted largely on the basis of Landsat 7 images. The assessment followed an expert systems approach, applying multi-criteria analysis (MCA) with an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to determine the weights of the individual parameters related to forest fires. A multi-indicator function with nine parameters was constructed to establish a forest fire risk map at a scale of 1:100,000 for use at the provincial level. The results were verified through regression analysis, yielding R2 = 0.86. A real-time early warning system for forest fire areas has been developed for practical use by the relevant government authorities to provide more effective forest fire prevention planning for Son La Province.

Spatial-carrier digital speckle pattern interferometry (SC-DSPI) has proven to be a competitive tool for full-field deformation measurement. Comparing with traditional phase-shifting digital speckle pattern interferometry, SC-DSPI has the advantage of rapid measurement which guarantees that dynamic deformations can be precisely measured. In this article, a tri-channel SC-DSPI that measures three-dimensional deformations synchronously is introduced. Measuring algorithm as well as optical arrangement is described in detail. Experiments are carried out to verify the validity and evaluate the performance of the proposed technique.

Background: Digital speckle pattern interferometry (DSPI) is a competitive optical tool for full-field deformation measurement. The two main types of DSPI, phase-shifting DSPI (PS-DSPI) and spatial-carrier DSPI (SC-DSPI), are distinguished by their unique optical setups and methods of phase determination. Each DSPI type has its limited ability in practical applications. Results: We designed a universal optical setup that is suitable for both PS-DSPI and SC-DSPI, with the aim of integrating their respective advantages, including PS-DSPI's precise measurement and SC-DSPI's synchronous measurement, improving DSPI's measuring capacity in engineering. Conclusion: The proposed setup also has several other advantages, including a simple and robust structure, easy adjustment and operation, and versatility of measuring approach.

The early-warning model for flash floods is based on a hydrological and geomorphological concept connected to the river basin, with the principle that flash floods will only occur where there is a high potential risk and when rainfall exceeds the threshold. In the model used to build flash-floods risk maps, the parameters of the basin are analyzed and evaluated and the weight is determined using Thomas Saaty’s analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The flash-floods early-warning software is built using open source programming tools. With the spatial module and online processing, a predicted precipitation of one to six days in advance for iMETOS (AgriMedia—Vietnam) automatic meteorological stations is interpolated and then processed with the potential risk maps (iMETOS is a weather-environment monitoring system comprising a wide range of equipment and an online platform and can be used in various fields such as agriculture, tourism and services). The results determine the locations of flash floods at several risk levels corresponding to the predicted rainfall values at the meteorological stations. The system was constructed and applied to flash floods disaster early warning for Thuan Chau in Son La province when the rainfall exceeded the 150 mm/d threshold. The system initially supported positive decision-making to prevent and minimize damage caused by flash floods.

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