A Novel Implementation of Tableau Software for the Visualisation of Seismic Data from Himalayan Region

Ground motions generated during an earthquake present a risk to the operational performance of buildings, as they impose high seismic demands on the structure leading to damage to structural elements. Several areas in India are prone to high seismic hazard and have been struck by major earthquakes at regular intervals and such seismic activity is expected to continue in the future as well. Assessing the seismic hazard in such regions is essential to mitigate damage to the built environment. In this paper, a novel implementation of assessing seismic hazards through a visual software dashboard is presented. The Tableau visualisation software is used to present a user-friendly visualisation of the recorded seismic data in both 2-D and 3-D. All the key characteristics of ground motions recorded at various stations in the Himalayan region are analysed and then represented in the information system. The novel implementation using Tableau visualisation aids in understanding and accessing earthquake data in a variety of formats, from pin position to density map of the pins. The results from this tool can be downloaded and accessed in a variety of formats and thus the implementation presents an exciting opportunity for extension and adoption to other regions in the Indian Sub-continent.