A sweep-line algorithm for spatial clustering

This paper presents an agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithm for spatial data. It discovers clusters of arbitrary shapes which may be nested. The algorithm uses a sweeping approach consisting of three phases: sorting is done during the preprocessing phase, determination of clusters is performed during the sweeping phase, and clusters are adjusted during the post processing phase. The properties of the algorithm are demonstrated by examples. The algorithm is also adapted to the streaming algorithm for clustering large spatial datasets.