Using Ontologies for the Design of Data Warehouses

Obtaining an implementation of a data warehouse is a complex task that forces designers to acquire wide knowledge of the domain, thus requiring a high level of expertise and becoming it a prone-to-fail task. Based on our experience, we have detected a set of situations we have faced up with in real-world projects in which we believe that the use of ontologies will improve several aspects of the design of data warehouses. The aim of this article is to describe several shortcomings of current data warehouse design approaches and discuss the benefit of using ontologies to overcome them. This work is a starting point for discussing the convenience of using ontologies in data warehouse design.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

Designing data warehouses for geographic OLAP querying by using MDA

Data aggregation in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a desirable feature, spatial data are integrated in OLAP engines for this purpose. However, the development and operation of those systems is still a complex task due to methodologies followed. There are some ad hoc solutions that deal only with isolated aspects and do not provide developer and analyst with an intuitive, integrated and standard framework for designing all relevant parts. To overcome these problems, we have defined a model driven approach to accomplish Geographic Data Warehouse (GDW) development. Then, we have defined a data model required to implement and query spatial data. Its modeling is defined and implemented by using an extension of UML metamodel and it is also formalized by using OCL language. In addition, the proposal has been verified against a example scenario with sample data sets. For this purpose, we have accomplished a developing tool based on Eclipse platform and MDA standard. The great advantage of this solution is that developers can directly include spatial data at conceptual level, while decision makers can also conceptually make geographic queries without being aware of logical details.This work has been partially supported by the ESPIA project (TIN2007-67078) from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and by the QUASIMODO project (PAC08-0157-0668) from the Castilla-La Mancha Ministry of Education and Science (Spain). Octavio Glorio is funded by the University of Alicante under the 11th Latin American grant program

An Open Source Based Data Warehouse Architecture to Support Decision Making in the Tourism Sector

In this paper an alternative Tourism oriented Data Warehousing architecture is proposed which makes use of the most recent free and open source technologies like Java, Postgresql and XML. Such architecture's aim will be to support the decision making process and giving an integrated view of the whole Tourism reality in an established context (local, regional, national, etc.) without requesting big investments for getting the necessary software.Tourism, Data warehousing architecture

A New Relational Spatial OLAP Approach For Multi-resolution and Spatio-multidimensional Analysis of Incomplete Field Data

International audienceIntegrating continuous spatial data into SOLAP systems is a new research challenge. Moreover, representation of field data at different scales or resolutions is often mandatory for an effective analysis. Thus, in this paper, we propose a logical model to integrate spatial dimensions representing incomplete field data at different resolutions in a classical SOLAP architecture

To Develop a Database Management Tool for Multi-Agent Simulation Platform

Depuis peu, la Modélisation et Simulation par Agents (ABMs) est passée d'une approche dirigée par les modèles à une approche dirigée par les données (Data Driven Approach, DDA). Cette tendance vers l’utilisation des données dans la simulation vise à appliquer les données collectées par les systèmes d’observation à la simulation (Edmonds and Moss, 2005; Hassan, 2009). Dans la DDA, les données empiriques collectées sur les systèmes cibles sont utilisées non seulement pour la simulation des modèles mais aussi pour l’initialisation, la calibration et l’évaluation des résultats issus des modèles de simulation, par exemple, le système d’estimation et de gestion des ressources hydrauliques du bassin Adour-Garonne Français (Gaudou et al., 2013) et l’invasion des rizières du delta du Mékong au Vietnam par les cicadelles brunes (Nguyen et al., 2012d). Cette évolution pose la question du « comment gérer les données empiriques et celles simulées dans de tels systèmes ». Le constat que l’on peut faire est que, si la conception et la simulation actuelles des modèles ont bénéficié des avancées informatiques à travers l’utilisation des plateformes populaires telles que Netlogo (Wilensky, 1999) ou GAMA (Taillandier et al., 2012), ce n'est pas encore le cas de la gestion des données, qui sont encore très souvent gérées de manière ad-hoc. Cette gestion des données dans des Modèles Basés Agents (ABM) est une des limitations actuelles des plateformes de simulation multiagents (SMA). Autrement dit, un tel outil de gestion des données est actuellement requis dans la construction des systèmes de simulation par agents et la gestion des bases de données correspondantes est aussi un problème important de ces systèmes. Dans cette thèse, je propose tout d’abord une structure logique pour la gestion des données dans des plateformes de SMA. La structure proposée qui intègre des solutions de l’Informatique Décisionnelle et des plateformes multi-agents s’appelle CFBM (Combination Framework of Business intelligence and Multi-agent based platform), elle a plusieurs objectifs : (1) modéliser et exécuter des SMAs, (2) gérer les données en entrée et en sortie des simulations, (3) intégrer les données de différentes sources, et (4) analyser les données à grande échelle. Ensuite, le besoin de la gestion des données dans les simulations agents est satisfait par une implémentation de CFBM dans la plateforme GAMA. Cette implémentation présente aussi une architecture logicielle pour combiner entrepôts deIv données et technologies du traitement analytique en ligne (OLAP) dans les systèmes SMAs. Enfin, CFBM est évaluée pour la gestion de données dans la plateforme GAMA à travers le développement de modèles de surveillance des cicadelles brunes (BSMs), où CFBM est utilisé non seulement pour gérer et intégrer les données empiriques collectées depuis le système cible et les résultats de simulation du modèle simulé, mais aussi calibrer et valider ce modèle. L'intérêt de CFBM réside non seulement dans l'amélioration des faiblesses des plateformes de simulation et de modélisation par agents concernant la gestion des données mais permet également de développer des systèmes de simulation complexes portant sur de nombreuses données en entrée et en sortie en utilisant l’approche dirigée par les données.Recently, there has been a shift from modeling driven approach to data driven approach inAgent Based Modeling and Simulation (ABMS). This trend towards the use of data-driven approaches in simulation aims at using more and more data available from the observation systems into simulation models (Edmonds and Moss, 2005; Hassan, 2009). In a data driven approach, the empirical data collected from the target system are used not only for the design of the simulation models but also in initialization, calibration and evaluation of the output of the simulation platform such as e.g., the water resource management and assessment system of the French Adour-Garonne Basin (Gaudou et al., 2013) and the invasion of Brown Plant Hopper on the rice fields of Mekong River Delta region in Vietnam (Nguyen et al., 2012d). That raises the question how to manage empirical data and simulation data in such agentbased simulation platform. The basic observation we can make is that currently, if the design and simulation of models have benefited from advances in computer science through the popularized use of simulation platforms like Netlogo (Wilensky, 1999) or GAMA (Taillandier et al., 2012), this is not yet the case for the management of data, which are still often managed in an ad hoc manner. Data management in ABM is one of limitations of agent-based simulation platforms. Put it other words, such a database management is also an important issue in agent-based simulation systems. In this thesis, I first propose a logical framework for data management in multi-agent based simulation platforms. The proposed framework is based on the combination of Business Intelligence solution and a multi-agent based platform called CFBM (Combination Framework of Business intelligence and Multi-agent based platform), and it serves several purposes: (1) model and execute multi-agent simulations, (2) manage input and output data of simulations, (3) integrate data from different sources; and (4) analyze high volume of data. Secondly, I fulfill the need for data management in ABM by the implementation of CFBM in the GAMA platform. This implementation of CFBM in GAMA also demonstrates a software architecture to combine Data Warehouse (DWH) and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) technologies into a multi-agent based simulation system. Finally, I evaluate the CFBM for data management in the GAMA platform via the development of a Brown Plant Hopper Surveillance Models (BSMs), where CFBM is used ii not only to manage and integrate the whole empirical data collected from the target system and the data produced by the simulation model, but also to calibrate and validate the models.The successful development of the CFBM consists not only in remedying the limitation of agent-based modeling and simulation with regard to data management but also in dealing with the development of complex simulation systems with large amount of input and output data supporting a data driven approach

To Develop a Database Management Tool for Multi-Agent Simulation Platform

Depuis peu, la Modélisation et Simulation par Agents (ABMs) est passée d'une approche dirigée par les modèles à une approche dirigée par les données (Data Driven Approach, DDA). Cette tendance vers l’utilisation des données dans la simulation vise à appliquer les données collectées par les systèmes d’observation à la simulation (Edmonds and Moss, 2005; Hassan, 2009). Dans la DDA, les données empiriques collectées sur les systèmes cibles sont utilisées non seulement pour la simulation des modèles mais aussi pour l’initialisation, la calibration et l’évaluation des résultats issus des modèles de simulation, par exemple, le système d’estimation et de gestion des ressources hydrauliques du bassin Adour-Garonne Français (Gaudou et al., 2013) et l’invasion des rizières du delta du Mékong au Vietnam par les cicadelles brunes (Nguyen et al., 2012d). Cette évolution pose la question du « comment gérer les données empiriques et celles simulées dans de tels systèmes ». Le constat que l’on peut faire est que, si la conception et la simulation actuelles des modèles ont bénéficié des avancées informatiques à travers l’utilisation des plateformes populaires telles que Netlogo (Wilensky, 1999) ou GAMA (Taillandier et al., 2012), ce n'est pas encore le cas de la gestion des données, qui sont encore très souvent gérées de manière ad-hoc. Cette gestion des données dans des Modèles Basés Agents (ABM) est une des limitations actuelles des plateformes de simulation multiagents (SMA). Autrement dit, un tel outil de gestion des données est actuellement requis dans la construction des systèmes de simulation par agents et la gestion des bases de données correspondantes est aussi un problème important de ces systèmes. Dans cette thèse, je propose tout d’abord une structure logique pour la gestion des données dans des plateformes de SMA. La structure proposée qui intègre des solutions de l’Informatique Décisionnelle et des plateformes multi-agents s’appelle CFBM (Combination Framework of Business intelligence and Multi-agent based platform), elle a plusieurs objectifs : (1) modéliser et exécuter des SMAs, (2) gérer les données en entrée et en sortie des simulations, (3) intégrer les données de différentes sources, et (4) analyser les données à grande échelle. Ensuite, le besoin de la gestion des données dans les simulations agents est satisfait par une implémentation de CFBM dans la plateforme GAMA. Cette implémentation présente aussi une architecture logicielle pour combiner entrepôts deIv données et technologies du traitement analytique en ligne (OLAP) dans les systèmes SMAs. Enfin, CFBM est évaluée pour la gestion de données dans la plateforme GAMA à travers le développement de modèles de surveillance des cicadelles brunes (BSMs), où CFBM est utilisé non seulement pour gérer et intégrer les données empiriques collectées depuis le système cible et les résultats de simulation du modèle simulé, mais aussi calibrer et valider ce modèle. L'intérêt de CFBM réside non seulement dans l'amélioration des faiblesses des plateformes de simulation et de modélisation par agents concernant la gestion des données mais permet également de développer des systèmes de simulation complexes portant sur de nombreuses données en entrée et en sortie en utilisant l’approche dirigée par les données.Recently, there has been a shift from modeling driven approach to data driven approach inAgent Based Modeling and Simulation (ABMS). This trend towards the use of data-driven approaches in simulation aims at using more and more data available from the observation systems into simulation models (Edmonds and Moss, 2005; Hassan, 2009). In a data driven approach, the empirical data collected from the target system are used not only for the design of the simulation models but also in initialization, calibration and evaluation of the output of the simulation platform such as e.g., the water resource management and assessment system of the French Adour-Garonne Basin (Gaudou et al., 2013) and the invasion of Brown Plant Hopper on the rice fields of Mekong River Delta region in Vietnam (Nguyen et al., 2012d). That raises the question how to manage empirical data and simulation data in such agentbased simulation platform. The basic observation we can make is that currently, if the design and simulation of models have benefited from advances in computer science through the popularized use of simulation platforms like Netlogo (Wilensky, 1999) or GAMA (Taillandier et al., 2012), this is not yet the case for the management of data, which are still often managed in an ad hoc manner. Data management in ABM is one of limitations of agent-based simulation platforms. Put it other words, such a database management is also an important issue in agent-based simulation systems. In this thesis, I first propose a logical framework for data management in multi-agent based simulation platforms. The proposed framework is based on the combination of Business Intelligence solution and a multi-agent based platform called CFBM (Combination Framework of Business intelligence and Multi-agent based platform), and it serves several purposes: (1) model and execute multi-agent simulations, (2) manage input and output data of simulations, (3) integrate data from different sources; and (4) analyze high volume of data. Secondly, I fulfill the need for data management in ABM by the implementation of CFBM in the GAMA platform. This implementation of CFBM in GAMA also demonstrates a software architecture to combine Data Warehouse (DWH) and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) technologies into a multi-agent based simulation system. Finally, I evaluate the CFBM for data management in the GAMA platform via the development of a Brown Plant Hopper Surveillance Models (BSMs), where CFBM is used ii not only to manage and integrate the whole empirical data collected from the target system and the data produced by the simulation model, but also to calibrate and validate the models.The successful development of the CFBM consists not only in remedying the limitation of agent-based modeling and simulation with regard to data management but also in dealing with the development of complex simulation systems with large amount of input and output data supporting a data driven approach

Developing Strategic Reports for National Co-Operative of Malaysia (Angkasa) Using Data Warehouse and Decision Tree Model

Managing an organization requires access to information in order to monitor activities and assess performance. Business Intelligence (BI) solutions provide organizations with timley, itegrated information that is crucial to the understanding of their business. Data Warehouse (DW) technology is one of the important strategic management approaches for decision making in an organizations. The BI combines architectures, tools, databases, analytical tools, and methodologies to enable the implementation of interactive information in generating analytical reports. Strategic reports, which influence the enduring way of the whole company, are typically used by top managers. These kinds of decisions are repeatedly complex and the outcomes unsure, because existing information is habitually incomplete. Managers at this point must normally depend on history experiences and their instincts when making strategic decisions. DW is a technology allows integrating and transforming enterprise data for strategic decision making. Furthermore, Decision Tree (DT) is a decision support tool that uses a tree-like graphof decisions and their possible consequences, including chance event outcomes, resource costs, and utility. The organization, which is, responsible to manage people activities need strategic decisions making. This paper will be focused how to design and develop Strategic Reports using DW and DT Model for National Co-operative Organization of Malaysia (ANGKASA) called DSRNCO, as a case study. This system has been evaluated through the system user feedback by using Computer System Usability Questionnaire (CSUQ), which measures system usability and user satisfaction

A quality-aware spatial data warehouse for querying hydroecological data

International audienceAddressing data quality issues in information systems remains a challenging task. Many approaches only tackle this issue at the extract, transform and load steps. Here we define a comprehensive method to gain greater insight into data quality characteristics within data warehouse. Our novel architecture was implemented for an hydroecological case study where massive French watercourse sampling data are collected. The method models and makes effective use of spatial, thematic and temporal accuracy, consistency and completeness for multidimensional data in order to offer analysts a âdata qualityâ oriented framework. The results obtained in experiments carried out on the Saône River dataset demonstrated the relevance of our approac