The use and significance of modern Decision Support Systems (DSS) in the service of humanity against forest fires

Forest fires constitute one of the greatest hazards for the viability and sustainable development of forests with consequences both on natural and cultural environment, undermining the economy and the quality of life of local and regional populations. Thus, the best strategic to grapple with forest fires while taking under consideration both functional and economic efficiency is considered of primary importance. To this effect, great share have the usage and adoption of decision support systems (DSS) which contain tools of G.I.S. and satellite technology and function as information systems which support the managers responsible for eliminating the forest fires. Definitely, the sub-systems of the most DSS can be used independently depending on the main purpose, such as for prevention or suppression procedures; for the financial estimation of the planned mission; for the smoke detection and the prediction of its repercussions on the human health etc. Hence, the paper aims to a comparative assessment of the most contemporary DSS which are in use in different geographic scales -such as national and federal level- as well as to a thorough exploration of the effectiveness and contribution of such systems to the confronting of forest fires.