GeoCube, a Multidimensional Model and Navigation Operators Handling Complex Measures: Application in Spatial OLAP
Résumé
Data warehouses and OLAP systems help to interactively analyze huge volume of data. Frequently this data contains spatial information which is useful for decision-making process. Spatial OLAP (SOLAP) refers to the integration of spatial data in multidimensional applications at physical, logical and conceptual level. Using spatial measure as a geographical object, i.e. taking in account its geometric and descriptive attributes, raises problems regarding the aggregation operation and the cube navigation in their semantic and implementation aspects. This paper defines an extended multidimensional data model which is able to support complex objects as measures, in order to handle geographical data according with its particular nature in an OLAP context. The model allows the multidimensional navigation process. OLAP operators are described which include this new concept of measure. A prototype of a SOLAP tool that handles geographical object as measures is presented.