Implementing spatial datawarehouse hierarchies in object-relational DBMSs

Spatial Data Warehouses (SDWs) allow to analyze historical data represented in a space supporting the decision-making process. SDW applications require a multidimensional view of data that includes dimensions with hierarchies and facts with associated measures. In particular, hierarchies are important since traversing them users can analyze detailed and aggregated measures. To better represent users’ requirements for SDWs, the conceptual model with spatial support should be used. Afterwards, the conceptual schema is translated to the logical and physical schemas. However, during the translation process the semantics can be lost. In this paper, we present the translation of spatial hierarchies from the conceptual to physical schemas represented in the MultiDimER model and Oracle 10g Spatial, respectively. Further, to ensure the semantic equivalence between the conceptual and the physical schemas, integrity constraints are exemplified mainly using triggers.