Visualization for epidemiological modelling: challenges, solutions, reflections and recommendations.

We report on an ongoing collaboration between epidemiological modellers and visualization researchers by documenting and reflecting upon knowledge constructs-a series of ideas, approaches and methods taken from existing visualization research and practice-deployed and developed to support modelling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Structured independent commentary on these efforts is synthesized through iterative reflection to develop: evidence of the effectiveness and value of visualization in this context; open problems upon which the research communities may focus; guidance for future activity of this type and recommendations to safeguard the achievements and promote, advance, secure and prepare for future collaborations of this kind. In describing and comparing a series of related projects that were undertaken in unprecedented conditions, our hope is that this unique report, and its rich interactive supplementary materials, will guide the scientific community in embracing visualization in its observation, analysis and modelling of data as well as in disseminating findings. Equally we hope to encourage the visualization community to engage with impactful science in addressing its emerging data challenges. If we are successful, this showcase of activity may stimulate mutually beneficial engagement between communities with complementary expertise to address problems of significance in epidemiology and beyond. See https://ramp-vis.github.io/RAMPVIS-PhilTransA-Supplement/. This article is part of the theme issue 'Technical challenges of modelling real-life epidemics and examples of overcoming these'.

RAMPVIS: A visualization and visual analytics infrastructure for COVID-19 data.

The COVID-19 pandemic generated large amounts of diverse data, including testing, treatments, vaccine trials, data from modeling, etc. To support epidemiologists and modeling scientists in their efforts to understand and respond to the pandemic, there arose a need for web visualization and visual analytics (VIS) applications to provide insights and support decision-making. In this paper, we present RAMPVIS, an infrastructure designed to support a range of observational, analytical, model-developmental, and dissemination tasks. One of the main features of the system is the ability to "propagate" a visualization designed for one data source to similar ones, this allows a user to quickly visualize large amounts of data. In addition to the COVID pandemic, the RAMPVIS software may be adapted and used with different data to provide rapid visualization support for other emergency responses.