2008, Couplage entre outils BI et composantes cartographiques pour le déploiement de technologie géodécisionnelle Spatial OLAP
(Proulx, M.-J., Université Laval)

2008, Advanced Data Warehouse Design From Conventional to Spatial and Temporal Applications
(Malinowski, E. Zimanyi, E.)

2008, Fundamental Characteristics of Spatial OLAP Technologies as Selection Criteria,
(Proulx, M.-J. et al, Université Laval)

2007, Usability Evaluation of the Spatial OLAP Visualization and Analysis Tool (SOVAT) (Scotch, M. et al, University of Pittsburgh, USA)

2007, Performance Management with spatial analysis (part 1), (part 2) (Meeham, A., Integeo)

2006, The Practical Union of OLAP Analysis and Geographic Mapping (Kramer, G. et al, SAS Institute)

2005, Data mining from 1994 to 2004: an application-orientated review
(Chen, S. et al, Brunel University, UK)

2005. Integrating GIS and OLAP: a New Way to Unlock Geospatial Data for Decision-Making. (Bédard, Y., Université Laval, Canada)

2005, SOLAP: Merging Business Intelligence with Geospatial Technology for Interactive Spatio-Temporal Exploration and Analysis of Data (Rivest, S. et al, Université Laval, Canada)

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"Spatial OLAP can be defined as a visual platform built especially to support rapid and easy spatiotemporal analysis and exploration of data following a multidimensional approach comprised of aggregation levels available in cartographic displays as well as in tabular and diagram displays." Bédard, 1997.

Spatial OLAP Concepts

An ideal Spatial OLAP technology must deal with spatial objects as an integrated part of the navigation and must offer capabilities to efficiently manage these spatial objects. To do so, some characteristics are required:

Spatial Data Structure
Visualization Functions
Interactive Exploration Functions

All around the world, there are many research groups working in this research area. They contribute to improve geospatial databases, facilitate spatial data aggregation, help evaluate geospatial aggregation quality...

View Research Teams

View Spatial OLAP examples:

Flash Demo

On-Line Application

Many commercial products can be used to deploy a solution that combines multidimensional analysis and cartographic visualization. However, only a few products can be termed Spatial OLAP technologies.

Various levels of functionality exist and evaluation criteria are necessary to identify the products that will best suit your needs.

Evaluation Criteria
Major Vendors Products