Cooperation with Geographic Databases

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to create cooperation between geographic databases (GDBs) and multidimensional databases (MDDBs), which are considered as the most promising and efficient information technologies for supporting decision making. We focus on the common key elements between geographic and multidimensional data which allow effective support in data cooperating. These elements are basically time and space, which are present implicitly or explicitly in MDDB and are modeled on the dimensions, Time and Location. Thus, because GDBs are primarily concerned with geographic data, we will focus on space as a bridge element for cooperating MDDBs and GDBs. We propose an approach that extends the geographic data structure through special attributes, called binding attributes, in order to describe all phenomena represented by MDDBs. This extension will make it possible to answer more specific “OLAP-based” queries within GDBs without modifying the physical organization of data in both environments.