MzS Tools: GIS Methods and Tools for Seismic Microzonation Mapping

Abstract

MzSTools is a plugin for QGIS developed by the National Research Council (CNR) as part of the activities concerning the coordination of seismic microzonation studies in Italy. It train from the need to create a practical and easy-to-use tool to carry out seismic microzonation (SM) studies by producing standards compliant geographic database and maps, thus making them accurate, homogeneous and uniform for all municipalities in Italy. A geodatabase based on SQLite/SpatiaLite Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). It has been designed to collect and store data related to elements such as: geognostic surveys; bedrocks and cover terrains; superficial and buried geomorphological elements; tectonic-structural elements; elements of geological instability such as landslide zones, liquefaction zones and zones affected by active and capable faults; homogeneous microzones in seismic perspective, microzones characterized by a seismic amplification factor. The QGIS plugin provides tools such as data entry forms designed with Qt Designer; a QGIS project template with layers, symbol libraries and graphic styles; layouts for the SM Maps. MzSTools assembles in a single software environment a set of useful tools for those who work in. The plugin is open source, whose code hosted on the GitHub platform, and is published via the official QGIS plugins repository (https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/MzSTools/).