Design of Complex Spatio-multidimensional Models with the

ICSOLAP UML Profile

An Implementation in MagicDraw

Sandro Bimonte

, Kamal Boulil

, Francois Pinet

and Myoung-Ah Kang

Irstea, TSCF, 24 Avenue des Landais, 63178, Aubière, France

LIMOS-UMR CNRS 6158, ISIMA, Blaise Pascal University, Campus des CEZEAUX, Aubière, France

Keywords: Spatial Data Warehouse, Spatial OLAP, Multidimensional Modelling, UML.

Abstract: Spatial Data Warehouse and SOLAP systems allow analyzing huge volume of georeferenced data. SOLAP

applications are usually complex needing advanced static and dynamic modelling properties. In particular,

SOLAP applications require: multi-granular measures and complex aggregations based on aggregate

functions depending on dimensions, hierarchies and levels. In this demo paper, motivated by the lack of

conceptual spatio-multidimensional models based on standard languages and supporting such complex

modelling requirements, we present a new UML profile for complex spatial data cubes. We implement our

profile in the commercial CASE tool called MagicDraw. Using a real environmental case study, we show

the theoretical and technical effectiveness of our proposal.

1 INTRODUCTION

Spatial Data Warehouse (SDW) and Spatial OLAP

(SOLAP) systems allow analyzing huge volume of

geo-referenced datasets modelled according to the

spatio-multidimensional model, which represents

decisional data in terms of facts (subjects of

analysis) and dimensions (analysis axis). This model

extends the classical OLAP model with specific

concepts such as spatial dimensions, spatial

measures and spatial aggregate functions (Bédard et

al., 2006). A spatial dimension (respectively a

spatial measure) allows representing facts ‘locations

as axis (respectively as subjects) of analysis using

geometrical attributes. Data aggregation in SOLAP

is an important and frequent task since it permits to

users to compute different analysis indicators by

summarizing factual data (numerical and spatial

measures) along dimension hierarchies using

aggregate functions. This aggregation which is

triggered by SOLAP operators implemented in

SOLAP systems depends on the chosen measure and

hierarchy (i.e. the aggregate function we use

depends on both measure and hierarchy types).

Usually, SOLAP systems integrate OLAP and

Geographic Information Systems functionalities in a

unique and coherent framework. SOLAP systems

are based on a three-tiers architecture composed of:

(i) a Spatial DBMS allowing for storing and

querying SDW data, (ii) a SOLAP server which

implements a set of SOLAP operators (e.g., Spatial

drill-down) dedicated to rapidly defining and

exploring spatial data cubes from the SDW data,

(iii) and finally a SOLAP client that allows

visualizing data cube data in graphical, tabular and

cartographic interactive displays (Bimonte et al.,

2010).

It is widely recognized that SOLAP applications,

such as environmental, health, economic ones

(Bédard et al., 2006), are usually very complex

requiring advanced and complex spatio-

multidimensional modelling issues. Then,

conceptual models are important means to interface

decision-makers with DW designers in order to

define (spatio)multidimensional models reflecting

users’ analysis goals (Torlone, 2003.

In particular, advanced elements’ typing, multi-

granular measures, and complex aggregation rules

for measures along dimensions (for example, the

aggregation of sales’ amounts only along the time

dimension using the average) are mandatory issues

when dealing with real applications (Boulil, 2012).

To the best of our knowledge no existing work

addresses these modelling requirements.

In this demo paper, motivated by the important

expressivity of UML, and its implementation in

310

Bimonte S., Boulil K., Pinet F. and Kang M..

Design of Complex Spatio-multidimensional Models with the ICSOLAP UML Proﬁle - An Implementation in MagicDraw.

DOI: 10.5220/0004556803100315

In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS-2013), pages 310-315

ISBN: 978-989-8565-59-4

 2013 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

functional CASE tools (such as Eclipse, etc.) we

present a UML profile for designing spatio-

multidimensional models (Boulil, 2012) taking into

account the above described modelling

requirements. A UML profile is an extension of

UML to explicitly represent a particular application

domain semantics by means of stereotypes

(specializations of UML elements), tagged values

(stereotypes’ properties) and OCL constraints.

Finally, the main goal of the demo is to show the

implementation of our profile for SOLAP in the

commercial CASE tool MagicDraw. Using a real

environmental case study, we show the theoretical

and technical effectiveness of our proposal.

2 RELATED WORK

Several conceptual spatio-multidimensional models

for SOLAP have been proposed in the literature,

which are either based on standard or ad hoc

languages. However, until now, no standard model

has emerged. In this section,motivated by the need

of a standard-based conceptual design and an

automatic implementation of SOLAP models, we

present only main UML and ER based models. We

analyse these models according the modelling

requirements described in Section 1.

(Malinowski and Zimányil, 2008) propose an

ER-based model called Spatial MultiDimER. Spatial

MultiDimER represents main static SDW concepts

such complex and multiple spatial hierarchies and

spatial measures, but does not provide any support

for measure aggregation and multi-granular

measures.

To the best of our knowledge, the main UML-

based models for the SDW conceptual design are

proposed in (Glorio and Trujillo, 2008) and (Pinet

and Schneider, 2010). The authors in (Glorio and

Trujillo, 2008) propose a UML profile that

represents main SDW concepts such as multiple data

cubes but that does not support multi-granular

measures. Regarding aggregation, this profile

defines only forbidden aggregate functions for

measures along dimensions using UML notes. This

profile is implemented in the Ecplise IDE. Reference

(Pinet and Schneider, 2010) presents a UML profile

that unify representations of facts and dimensions

for more flexibility in the design process, but this

profile does not offer supports for measure

aggregation and multi-granular measures.

Finally, all of the existing conceptual models

whether spatial or not, standard-based or not, focus

on the design of the DW structures and ignore the

aggregation aspects such as modeling of aggregate

functions and complex aggregation rules. In

addition, these models present some limitations

concerning modeling of multi-granular measures and

automatic implementation.

3 CASE STUDY

In order to present our proposal, we introduce an

environmental case study, adapted from the French

national project DISP’eau (Jacquot et al., 2011). One

of the main goals of this project is the analysis of

some environmental data for the definition of

vineyard irrigation diagnostics. In particular, data

about soil humidity are hourly collected

automatically by a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN),

and precipitation data are manually collected by the

farmers or automatically by sensors. In this way

decision-makers would be able to obtain

cartographic reports of environmental data by hour,

day, sensor and plot. For that reason, we have

deployed a SOLAP system for the analysis of that

data as shown on Figure 1 using the SOLAP system

Map4Decision. This figure represents the average

humidity for one sensor by hours.

However, precipitation data reveals being very

complex to be integrated in the spatial data

warehouse since some farmers could collect data per

day (the total sum of a day) and not per hour. In

other terms the precipitation measures are collected

at different granularities.

4 ICSOLAP UML PROFILE

ICSOLAP profile is organized into two main models

representing the static and dynamic elements of

SOLAP applications: the SDW model and the

Aggregation model (Boulil, 2012).

In particular, the SDW model defines dimensions

and facts using respectively UML package and UML

class elements. Dimensions are composed of levels,

and facts are described by measures that are

represented as attributes. Each element is typed:

spatial, thematic and temporal (e.g.

<<SpatialDimension>> for spatial

dimensions, <<SpatialAggLevel>> for spatial

level, Region for spatial data type, etc.).

Facts are related to any level of a dimension

through the association <<DimRelationship>>

allowing modeling facts at different granularities.

Figure 2 shows the SDW model of our case

DesignofComplexSpatio-multidimensionalModelswiththeICSOLAPUMLProfile-AnImplementationinMagicDraw

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study. It presents a spatial dimension “Nodes”, a

temporal dimension “Time” and two measures.

Figure 1: Visualization of SOLAP queries using

Map4Decision.

Let us note that as stated in the previous section,

precipitation measure values can be associated to the

“Hour” or “Day” levels. Moreover, it is necessary to

represent what aggregate function (the

ETLoperation tagged value of the measure) is

used when factual data is not associated to the most

detailed level of a dimension in order to correctly

define a way to estimate the measure value for the

detailed level (the Disaggregator tagged value

of the measure). Thus as shown in the fact class of

Figure 2, in our example the measure “precipitation”

is daily collected using the “Sum” and a splitting

function on 24 hours (“24HSplit”) is used to

estimate the hourly precipitation. For example

suppose that we have the precipitation values of two

days, "2011/12/15" and "2011/12/30", respectively

at the "Hour" and "Day" granularities, as shown

Table 1. Then, knowing that these values represent

totals (sums, the ETLOperation = 'Sum'), first if we

want to have precipitation values per hour for the

day "2011/12/30", we simply apply the "24HSplit"

function on the value "68" and get 2.83 mm for each

hour of this day. Secondly, if we want to compute

the average precipitation of these two days, we

should first apply the disaggregate function

"24HSplit" on the value "68" to get the precipitation

values for all the hours of "2011/12/30"; then apply

the average on all the precipitation values of all the

hours of the two days (sum of all values and division

by 48). This is because the average aggregate

function is non-distributive. By proceeding in this

way, we get the average value of 2.71 mm per hour

for these two days, which is more correct than the

sum and division by 25 ((62+2.83)/25=2.6).

Thanks to our solution that considers the

dependency between the aggregate function used in

the ETL process and the aggregate function used in

SOLAP queries, we avoid incorrect summaries. In

this way, our conceptual model is the unique one

that is able to represent measures at different

granularities.

Table 1: An example of precipitation values at "Hour" and

"Day" granularities.

Day Hour Precipitation(in mm)

2011/12/15

Hour 00 0

Hour 01 0

Hour 02 0

Hour 03 0

Hour 04 0

Hour 05 10

Hour 06 22

Hour 07 8

Hour 08 0

Hour 09 0

Hour 10 0

Hour 11 0

Hour 12 0

Hour 13 0

Hour 14 0

Hour 15 0

Hour 16 0

Hour 17 6

Hour 18 16

Hour 19 0

Hour 20 0

Hour 21 0

Hour 22 0

Hour 23 0

2011/12/30 68

The aggregation model allows representing how

measures are aggregated along dimensions

(<<BaseIndicator>>). Aggregation rules can

be defined along dimensions, hierarchies and

between levels. In particular, the used measure is

represented with the aggregatedAttribute

tagged value and the aggregate function,

aggregator, is defined as a parameter of the

aggregation rule (operation) of the indicator class. In

the example of Figure 3 (“AVG-SUMPluviometry”),

the precipitation measure is aggregated using the

sum on the temporal dimension and the average on

the spatial dimension. This indicator allows to

answer to complex SOLAP queries like: “What is

the average precipitation per plot and day (summing

the hourly precipitation)”. Note that, using our UML

profile, users choose the aggregator in a predefined

list (Figure 4) in MagicDraw.

ICEIS2013-15thInternationalConferenceonEnterpriseInformationSystems

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Figure 2: The SDW model: The Dispeau SDW model.

Figure 3: The Aggregation model: An example of a complex indicator.

Figure 4: The Aggregator's choice with our profile.

DesignofComplexSpatio-multidimensionalModelswiththeICSOLAPUMLProfile-AnImplementationinMagicDraw

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Figure 5: MagicDraw OCL profile checking.

5 IMPLEMENTATION

To the best of our knowledge only the CASE tool

MagicDraw (MagicDraw, 2012) natively

implements OCL constraints of UML profiles (on

the UML metamodel). Thus, we adopt this CASE

tool for our profile. This allows checking OCL

constraints during the design phase. Indeed,

semantic and structural constraints of a UML profile

can be modelled using OCL. For example in our

profile the following OCL statement states that an

hypercube should contain at least one dimension

forcing designers to define well-formed SOLAP

models.

context Hypercube inv

self.ownedMember->select (m |

m.oclIsTypeOf(SpatialDimension) or

m.oclIsTypeOf(TemporalDimension) or

m.oclIsTypeOf(ThematicDimension))-

>size()>0

Figure 5 shows an example of the OCL checking

functionality of MagicDraw where the previously

defined constraint is not satisfied (a representative

subset of the OCL constraints have been

implemented).

6 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE

WORK

Real SOLAP applications require complex

modelling requirements such as: advanced typing,

measures at different granularities, and complex

aggregation rules. Thus in this demo paper, we

present our ICSOLAP UML profile that allows

designing complex SOLAP models in terms of the

UML and OCL standard languages. It is

implemented in the CASE tool MagicDraw.

At the moment we are working on the automatic

definition of SOLAP client schemas to complete the

automatic implementation proposed in this paper.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work has been funded by Irstea, the French

“Ministère de l'Ecologie, du Développement durable

et de l'Energie” (project Miriphyque), the Disp'eau

project of FUI and the Auvergne Region.

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