Mission-critical web applications: a seismological case

Abstract

In this paper we present a work whose aim is putting into effect the potential offered today by information technologies to realize a working environment that effectively addresses the communication needs of a scientific community involved in seismological research. Currently, seismologists, engineers, and historians cooperating in seismic hazard assessment often need to browse all available information on seismic events, including not only parametric earthquake records but also the original studies, the intensity maps, and the macroseismic data. A user-centered system is presented to browse and query seismicity data of the Italian area, including a parametric earthquake catalogue (NT 4.1), the macroseismic database (DOM 4.1) and other related information. The environment has been designed as a Web application, with representatives of the scientific community involved in a cooperative and progressive design process, with greater participation in both development and exploitation phases.

Various paradigms have been defined and developed to access and query the catalogue NT4.1: by seismogenic zone, by space-time windows, by earthquake. Macroseismic data can be accessed in two ways formulating the minimum requirement: by earthquake, to extract the intensity datapoints, and by locality, to have seismic histories of the sites.

The main components of the environment, i.e. the navigation structure, the surface, and the data space are described, as well as the use of the environment during the seismic crisis of September–October 1997 in Central Italy.