Marie-Josée Proulx

Integrating gis components with knowledge discovery technology for environmental health decision support

This paper presents a new category of decision-support tools that builds on todays Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) technologies to facilitate Geographic Knowledge Discovery (GKD). This new category, named Spatial OLAP (SOLAP), has been an R&D topic for about 5 years in a few university labs and is now being implemented by early adopters in different fields, including public health where it provides numerous advantages. In this paper, we present an example of a SOLAP application in the field of environmental health: the ICEM-SE project. After having presented this example, we describe the design of this system and explain how it provides fast and easy access to the detailed and aggregated data that are needed for GKD and decision-making in public health. The SOLAP concept is also described and a comparison is made with traditional GIS applications.

Modelling geospatial application databases using UML-based repositories aligned with international standards in geomatics

This paper presents the result of recent work on the use of geospatial repositories to store the conceptual content of object oriented application database schemas and dictionaries aligned with international standards in geographic information (ISO/TC 211 and OGC). According to software engineering and database concepts, a geospatial repository can be defined as a collection of (meta) data structured in a manner to provide information about the semantics, geometry, temporality, and the integrity constraint of data stored in a geospatial database. For the last 6 years, ISO/TC 211 and OGC have been developing standards about geographic information to enable access and interoperability of geographic information; parts of these standards impact directly on geospatial repositories. Our work demonstrates that it is possible to develop a geospatial repository aligned with these standards and to implement it in a UML-based visual modelling tool.

Modeling Geospatial Databases with Plug-Ins for Visual Languages: A Pragmatic Approach and the Impacts of 16 Years of Research and Experimentations on Perceptory

Modeling geospatial databases for GIS applications has always posed several challenges for system analysts, developers and their clients. Numerous improvements to modeling formalisms have been proposed by the research community over the last 15 years, most remaining within academia. This paper presents generic extensions (called Plug-Ins for Visual Languages or PVL) to facilitate spatial and temporal modeling of databases. For the first time, we explain its intrinsic relationship with an extended repository and how it has been influenced by pragmatic lessons learned from real life projects. We describe how we use PVLs with UML and how 16 years of fundamental research, diverse experimentations and feedbacks from users over the world shaped our approach. The final section presents Perceptory, a free repository-based UML+ PVL CASE developed to improve geospatial database modeling.

Merging Hypermedia GIS with Spatial On-Line Analytical Processing: Towards Hypermedia SOLAP

Geographic Knowledge Discovery (GKD) requires systems that support interactive exploration of data without being slowed down by the intricacies of a SQL-type query language and cryptic data structures. GKD requires to compare maps of different phenomena or epochs, to dig into these maps to obtain detailed information, to roll-up data for more global information and to synchronize maps with tables and charts. This can be done by combining the capabilities of GIS with those of OLAP, leading to SOLAP (Spatial OLAP). To enrich the GKD process, we added hypermedia documents to SOLAP. Hypermedia SOLAP provides a more global perception of the situation without requiring the advanced knowledge typically required by Hypermedia GIS. This chapter presents hypermedia SOLAP concepts and gives an example dealing with the erosion of lands and roads.

Modélisation, simulation et analyse d'environnements urbains peuplés. Approche multi-agent pour l'étude des déplacements multimodaux

In this paper, we propose a novel multiscale approach to model Virtual Urban Environments thanks to the introduction of a design pattern which links activity places and transportation networks. This environment is also augmented with a synthetic population in order to build the Populated Urban Environment. The meso-simulator TransNetSim has been developed and coupled with the micro-simulator Vissim to benefit from the model capabilities. We used SOLAP tools to carry out the analysis of the simulations’ results in a simple and efficient manner for Quebec city. MOTS-CLÉS : environnement urbain virtuel, population synthétique, modélisation multiéchelle, mobilité urbaine, transport multi-modal, Spatial OLAP, simulation multi-agent du trafic. 2 Revue Internationale de Géomatique. Volume X – n° x/2009

Information géospatiale dans internet. Application pour un contexte de renseignement militaire

Web-based GIS generally use geographic coordinates or cartographic index to retrieve their data although these geographic designations are complex to understand by end users. On the other hand, more and more systems use textual designations such as place names or street addresses to launch researches. These textual designations are afterward associated to geographic coordinates in a way that is transparent to the user. However, these textual designations are frequently not unique and vary in time and space. Furthermore, a research on similar terms can sometimes be more pertinent. To facilitate research of geospatial information, Web-based GIS services propose various solutions such as gazetteers and geoparsing services. These services improve the results obtained with the help of a structured vocabulary and the standardisation of the terms used, Such ideas represent interesting avenues for geomatics and are described in this paper. A prototype developed with the RDDC-Valcartier is discussed. MOTS-CLÉS: cartographie, SIG-web, localisants, indexation, analyse géosémantique, toponymie, index de noms de lieu.