GeoOlap: An Integrated Approach for Decision Support

Abstract

Abstract. The integration of infonnation from different sources within the cnterprise is one of the basis for implementing successful Decision Support Systems (DSS). Typically a DSS supplies analytical infonnation obtained and transfonned from large data warebouses. Recently, the geographical component of infonnation bas become more important due to the growing use of this type of infonnation in logistics, marketing, and otber applications. This work describes GeoOlap, adecision support approach tbat proposes a method to develop decision support applications tbat integrates analytical and georeferenced elements from tbe ground up -at the design stage -and OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) and GIS (Geograpbical Infonnation System) tecbnologies to visualize the results. Additionally, tbis paper describes PostGeoOlap, an open source general-purpose tool, which supports GeoOlap and tbat allows developers to easily build decision support applications. A case study is presented to validate tbe proposed ideas.