A new Spatial OLAP approach for the analysis of Volunteered Geographic Information

•The paper presents the spatio-multidimensional analysis of VGI data.•The paper presents a UML profile for VGI data.•The paper presents a real implementation of a Relational OLAP architecture.

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) has great potential for enhancing analysts’ capabilities, assuming that VGI data quality issues, such as credibility and precision, are properly addressed. In this paper, we study the integration of VGI in Spatial OLAP (SOLAP) systems, which allow the integration and analysis of large volumes of good quality data. Using a real-world scenario, we highlight some similarities and differences among these two types of systems. We define a conceptual quality-oriented framework for warehousing and OLAPing VGI data. In particular, to address precision and credibility problems related to VGI data, we propose two new ETL operators: aggregation based on the VGI credibility and a filter based on the historical precision. We also define a new spatio-multidimensional model that provides decision makers with a global description of the quality of the aggregated data. To validate our proposal, we extend the classical relational SOLAP architecture using a standard VGI system.