Forest Monitoring System (GFD FMS) for Digital Transformation in Forestry
The Forest Monitoring System (FMS) developed by GFD is an integrated Remote sensing and GIS platform that allows customers to manage and update forest changes and forest resources at district, and province levels, forest owners, and forestry companies. Towards digital transformation in forestry, GFD FMS is developed on 3 main components, including i) System to detect forest changes based on satellite images automatically; ii) System to WebGIS and online forest management run on the cloud computing platform; and iii) Mobile application allows collect and update the field data, verification forest changes, manage the patrol and monitoring activities. The GFD FMS has been certified for copyright ownership by the Copyright Office of Vietnam dated July 23, 2021.
GFD FMS meets the management requirements of the forestry sector and the specific requirements of companies and organizations with the following functions:

The FMS is based on data sources and forest monitoring mechanisms of the forestry sector
- The forest status database is updated annually according to the procedure of the VNFOREST
- The mobile application for monitoring and updating forest developments, developed by GFD, is tailored to meet each customer’s requirements. It can be expanded with new modules designed for patrolling, biodiversity monitoring, and information retrieval tasks.
- Data on forest change points from satellite images are updated every 10 to 15 days using algorithms developed by GFD on the Google Earth Engine platform and GFD’s cloud computing infrastructure.
- Sentinel 2 satellite image data with 10m resolution and Landsat 8 image with 15m resolution are updated in near real-time (free and available in the solution). Using this data, customers can easily review past satellite images and verify the accuracy of forest changes detected by the system.
- Planet satellite imagery with a 3m resolution is updated in real-time (charges apply based on area). Planet images can be provided daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly.
- Near real-time forest fire warning data from satellite images.
- The forest change reporting system complies with the latest regulations of the VNFOREST (Circular 33); the reporting system is customized according to customer requirements.
- Manage drones (UAVs) and drone flight data, allow anti-splicing, and compare flight images right on the browser to forest monitoring.
- The system is designed with a service-oriented approach and is reusable for other entities within the province. It can be applied to functions such as payment for forest environmental services, verification of wood origins, and issuance of forest certificates.

The strength of GFD FMS in deployment for forest management at the provincial level and for major forest owners
- A single system for all levels of forest management: units such as the Forest Protection Departments, Forest Rangers, and forest owners all utilize a shared system that manages and accesses information based on specific authorizations. This system imposes no restrictions on the number of departments, offices, or teams that can participate.
- Synchronized management of all forest plots regarding tree species, planting year, silvicultural practices, exploitation, and replanting.
- Supports the management process, accountability, compliance with sustainable forest management criteria, and maintenance of forest certification.
- The system is built with an open architecture, highly customizable to accommodate new industry requirements or emerging practical management and operational needs.
- Provides the most advanced tools for information exploitation and analysis, including full-text search, spatial analysis, offline data access, information integration, and sharing on the Web environment.
- Easily supports all three platforms: Desktop, Web, and Mobile.
- The system fully employs open-source and free libraries, helping to minimize licensing costs, and facilitating easy expansion and large-scale deployment.

The GFD FMS system has been implemented in Vinh Phuc, Ninh Thuan, Quang Nam, Thua Thien Hue, Binh Thuan provinces and many forestry companies in Vietnam.