Integrating Google Earth within OLAP Tools for Multidimensional Exploration and Analysis of Spatial Data

Spatial OnLine Analytical Processing solutions are a type of Business Information Tool meant to support a decision maker in extracting hidden knowledge from data warehouses containing spatial data. To date, very few SOLAP tools are available, each presenting some drawbacks reducing their flexibility. To overcome these limitations, we have developed a web-based SOLAP tool, obtained by suitably integrating into an ad-hoc architecture the Geobrowser Google Earth with a freely available OLAP engine, namely Mondrian. As a consequence, a decision maker can perform exploration and analysis of spatial data both through the Geobrowser and a Pivot Table in a seamlessly fashion. In this paper, we illustrate the main features of the system we have developed, together with the underlying architecture, using a simulated case study.