Entre autres activités, les espaces métropolitains sont devenus des lieux de localisation privilégiés et de structuration des activités logistiques. La concentration des entrepôts dans la métropole, se traduit à l’échelle locale par une localisation dans les espaces périurbains, constituant ce qu’on pourrait appeler la métropolisation logistique. L’évolution même du secteur de la logistique vers un besoin d’entrepôts plus importants, plus grands, moins chers ont favorisé un éloignement au centre de la métropole. Ce desserrement logistique appelé est une dynamique spatiale qui traduit la déconcentration de ces entrepôts dans les périphéries des métropoles. Cette périurbanisation logistique amplifie les externalités négatives du transport et pose des questions nouvelles à l’action publique en charge de l’aménagement métropolitain. Cependant, les espaces périurbains ne constituent pas les seuls territoires de la logistique métropolitaine. L’étalement logistique ne doit pas gommer l’existence d’une logistique dans les zones denses de la métropole qui, par ailleurs, canalise l’attention des pouvoirs publics. La contradiction apparente entre une logistique qui contribue à l’étalement urbain et les nouveaux objectifs de durabilité a conduit à recentrer le débat sur le « dernier kilomètre », plutôt que l’aménagement de la logistique dans les marges. A travers le développement de la « logistique urbaine » la puissance publique entend apporter une offre complémentaire à celles proposées par le marché de l’immobilier logistique, tout en se conformant aux objectifs fixés en matière d’environnement par exemple. Le principal enjeu de l’analyse de cette métropolisation logistique réside dans cette double contribution de la logistique à la morphologie métropolitaine et à l’agenda politique / Among other activities, metropolitan areas have become places of premium location for logistics activities. As a consequence of the concentration of warehouses in metropolitan areas, logistics facilities are mainly located in suburban areas, inducing logistics metropolization. This logistics suburbanization amplifies the negative externalities of transport and challenges public policies. However, suburban areas are not the only location choices of logistics facilities. Analysis on logistics sprawl should not overlook logistics facilities located in dense parts of metropolitan areas which, moreover, draw the focus of public authorities. The apparent contradiction between logistics that contribute to urban sprawl and the new sustainability issues has led to refocusing the debate on the "last mile" rather than logistical planning in the fringes of metropolitan area. Through the development of "urban logistics" policies, public stakeholders intend to offer a complementary service to those offered by the logistics real estate market, while complying with environmental objectives. The main challenge of analyzing this logistics metropolization lies in the double contribution of logistics to metropolitan morphology and the political agenda

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo definir o rearranjo espacial da capacidade estática de armazenamento de soja no estado do Mato Grosso a partir de um modelo matemático de localização, visando à minimização dos custos logísticos envolvidos no escoamento da produção do grão aos armazéns e desses aos principais portos brasileiros. O instrumental utilizado para tanto foi a programação inteira-mista, considerando que o mercado em questão atua em concorrência perfeita, com oferta (produção) e demanda (exportação) fixas e ausência de diferença tecnológica e de economia de escala nas atividades de armazenamento e transporte. Foi adotado como premissa básica que o transporte dos locais armazenadores aos portos se dará apenas pela logística intermodal (rodo-ferro/hidroviário). Foram elaborados quatro cenários para tal análise, que incorporaram alterações na demanda, na economia de escala dos custos de construção dos armazéns graneleiros e mudanças na seleção dos armazéns para atendimento às exportações. Para todas essas simulações foi considerada a ausência de armazéns graneleiros no Mato Grosso, para comparação dos resultados com a situação da rede armazenadora existente. Os resultados obtidos sinalizaram que há uma tendência para ampliação da capacidade estática de armazenamento, principalmente nas mesorregiões Norte e Nordeste mato-grossenses, em torno de 1,4 milhões de toneladas. As microrregiões de Alto Paraguai (Centro-Sul), Alto Araguaia (Sudeste), Nova Lacerda e Tangará da Serra (Sudoeste) possuem uma defasagem na capacidade de estocagem atual, mostrando-se assim como locais potenciais para receber investimentos na ampliação. Portanto, pode-se concluir que o modelo desenvolvido atendeu ao objetivo do problema que foi de identificar os locais e dimensionar a capacidade de armazenamento para o Mato Grosso, mostrando assim, quais são as regiões que necessitam ampliar seu sistema armazenador. Dessa forma, a expansão planejada do sistema de armazenamento pode contribuir para minimizar as perdas no escoamento da produção, uma vez que o estado está muito distante dos portos. Assim, uma logística intermodal (mais competitiva) integrada com um sistema de armazenamento planejado pode diminuir o custo total envolvido para escoar a produção de soja mato-grossense até os portos. / The current study aimed to define the spatial rearrangement of the static capacity of soybean storage in the state of Mato Grosso, making use of a mathematical model of location, seeking for the reduction of logistic costs involved in transporting the grains production to warehouses and from there to the mains harbors in Brazil. The method used for that purpose was the mixed-integer programming, considering that the market under study is under perfect competition, with fixed supply (production) and demand (exportation) and the absence of a technological difference and of economies of scale in the activities of stocking and transporting. It was adopted as basic premise that the transporting from warehouses to harbors will be done through inter modal logistics (road-railway / waterway). Four scenarios were developed for such analysis, which incorporate changes in demand, economies of scale on costs of building grain warehouses and a change in the choice of the warehouses to meet the demand for exportation. In all of these simulations it was considered the absence of warehouses in Mato Grosso for comparing the results to the system of the existing network of storage. The results obtained signal that there is a tendency to expand the static capacity of storage, specially in the regions of the North or Northeast of Mato Grosso, to 1.4 million tons roughly. The regions of Alto Paraguai (Center-South), Alto Araguaia (Southeast), Nova Lacerda and Tangará da Serra (Southwest) have a current gap in the capacity of storage, showing that they are potential places to receive investments for expansion. Therefore, it can be concluded that the model developed reached the objective of the problem, which was to identify places and to delineate the capacity of storage for the state of Mato Grosso, presenting this way the regions to expand their stocking system. The planned expansion of the system can contribute to minimizing the losses in transporting the production, once the state is located far from the harbors. Thus, an inter modal logistic (more competitive) integrated to a planned system of storage can reduce the total cost involved to transport the soybean production to the harbors.

In the warehouse of a large cosmetics company, a mechanized order picker is restocked from nearby shelving, and the shelving is restocked from bulk storage, forming a three-tier inventory system. We consider such multi-tier inventory systems and determine the storage areas to which to assign items, and the quantities in which to store them, in order to minimize the total cost of picking items and restocking storage locations. With this research, we increase the number of inventory systems for which simple search algorithms find a provably near-optimal solution. The model and method were tested on data from the Avon Products distribution center outside Atlanta; the solution identified by the model reduced picking and restocking costs there by 20%. The sales forecasts of items stored in the warehouse may change, however, and new items will be introduced into the inventory system and others removed. To account for these changes, some warehouses may periodically reassign items to storage areas and recompute their storage quantities. These reassignment activities account for additional costs in the warehouse. The second focus of this research examines these costs over several time periods in a simple multi-tier inventory system. We develop heuristics to determine the storage areas to which to assign items and the quantities in which to store them in each time period, in order to minimize the total cost of picking items, restocking storage locations, and reassigning skus over multiple periods.

Manufacturing outsourcing in the U.S. has never been stronger than it is today. Increased outsourcing has led to significant changes in the design of the retail distribution network. While the traditional distribution network had the manufacturing plants supplying goods to the retail stores directly, the off-shore manufacturing has increased the network's demand for transportation and warehousing to deliver the goods. Thus, most companies have a complex distribution network with several import and regional distribution centers (RDC). In this thesis, we study an integrated facility location and inventory allocation problem for designing a distribution network with multiple national (import) distribution centers (NDC) and retailers. The key decisions are where to locate the RDCs and how much inventory to hold at the different locations such that the total network cost is minimized under a pre-defined operational rule for the distribution of goods. In particular, the inventory cost analysis is based on the continuous review batch ordering policy and the base-stock policy. Both Type-I (probability of stock-outs) and Type-II (fill-rate) service level measures are used in the analysis. Two different models are presented in this thesis for solving the integrated facility location-inventory allocation problem. The first model, continuous approximation (CA), assumes the distribution network to be located in a continuous region and replaces the discrete store locations with a store density function. The second model is a discrete representation of the problem as a mixed integer programming problem. Both the models take a nonlinear form and solution techniques are developed using the theory of nonlinear programming and linear reformulation of nonlinear problems. The goal of the first part of the thesis is to model the problem using a modified CA approach and an iterative solution scheme is presented to solve it. The main contribution of this work lies in developing a refined CA modeling technique when the discrete data cannot be modeled by a continuous function. In addition, the numerical analysis suggests that the total network cost is significantly lower in the case of the integrated model as compared with the non-integrated model. It is also shown that the regular CA approach leads to a solution which is inferior to the solution obtained by the modified CA approach. Our analysis shows that the type of service measure used affects the network design. In the second part of the thesis, the problem is modeled as a nonlinear mixed integer program and a linear reformulation solution technique is proposed to obtain a lower bound on the original problem. Computational results are presented for small problem instances. We conclude this part of the thesis by presenting an integrated model when a base stock inventory policy is used. A drop-decomposition heuristic is proposed to solve this problem.

Le travail présenté dans cette thèse vise à proposer des approches pour construire et développer des entrepôts de données selon le modèle NoSQL orienté colonnes. L'intérêt porté aux modèles NoSQL est motivé d'une part, par l'avènement des données massives et d'autre part, par l'incapacité du modèle relationnel, habituellement utilisés pour implémenter les entrepôts de données, à permettre le passage à très grande échelle. En effet, les différentes modèles NoSQL sont devenus des standards dans le stockage et la gestion des données massives. Ils ont été conçus à l'origine pour construire des bases de données dont le modèle de stockage est le modèle « clé/valeur ». D'autres modèles sont alors apparus pour tenir compte de la variabilité des données : modèles orienté colonne, orienté document et orienté graphe. Pour développer des entrepôts de données massives, notre choix s'est porté sur le modèle NoSQL orienté colonnes car il apparaît comme étant le plus approprié aux traitements des requêtes décisionnelles qui sont définies en fonction d'un ensemble de colonnes (mesures et dimensions) issues de l'entrepôt. Cependant, le modèle NoSQL en colonnes ne propose pas d'opérateurs de type analyse en ligne (OLAP) afin d'exploiter les entrepôts de données.Nous présentons dans cette thèse des solutions innovantes sur la modélisation logique et physique des entrepôts de données NoSQL en colonnes. Nous avons proposé une approche de construction des cubes de données qui prend compte des spécificités de l'environnement du stockage orienté colonnes. Par ailleurs, afin d'exploiter les entrepôts de données en colonnes, nous avons défini des opérateurs d'agrégation permettant de créer des cubes OLAP. Nous avons proposé l'opérateur C-CUBE (Columnar-Cube) permettant de construire des cubes OLAP stockés en colonnes dans un environnement relationnel en utilisant la jointure invisible. MC-CUBE (MapReduce Columnar-Cube) pour construire des cubes OLAP stockés en colonnes dans un environnement distribué exploitant la jointure invisible et le paradigme MapReduce pour paralléliser les traitements. Et enfin, nous avons développé l'opérateur CN-CUBE (Columnar-NoSQL Cube) qui tient compte des faits et des dimensions qui sont groupés dans une même table lors de la génération de cubes à partir d'un entrepôt dénormalisé selon un certain modèle logique. Nous avons réalisé une étude de performance des modèles de données dimensionnels NoSQL et de nos opérateurs OLAP. Nous avons donc proposé un index de jointure en étoile adapté aux entrepôts de données NoSQL orientés colonnes, baptisé C-SJI (Columnar-Star Join Index). Pour évaluer nos propositions, nous avons défini un modèle de coût pour mesurer l'impact de l'apport de cet index. D'autre part, nous avons proposé un modèle logique baptisé FLM (Flat Logical Model) pour implémenter des entrepôts de données NoSQL orientés colonnes et de permettre une meilleure prise en charge par les SGBD NoSQL de cette famille.Pour valider nos différentes contributions, nous avons développé une plate-forme logicielle CG-CDW (Cube Generation for Columnar Data Warehouses) qui permet de générer des cubes OLAP à partir d'entrepôts de données en colonnes. Pour terminer et afin d'évaluer nos contributions, nous avons tout d'abord développé un banc d'essai décisionnel NoSQL en colonnes (CNSSB : Columnar NoSQL Star Schema Benchmark) basé sur le banc d'essai SSB (Star Schema Benchmark), puis, nous avons procédé à plusieurs tests qui ont permis de montrer l'efficacité des différents opérateurs d'agrégation que nous avons proposé. / The work presented in this thesis aims at proposing approaches to build data warehouses by using the columnar NoSQL model. The use of NoSQL models is motivated by the advent of big data and the inability of the relational model, usually used to implement data warehousing, to allow data scalability. Indeed, the NoSQL models are suitable for storing and managing massive data. They are designed to build databases whose storage model is the "key/value". Other models, then, appeared to account for the variability of the data: column oriented, document oriented and graph oriented. We have used the column NoSQL oriented model for building massive data warehouses because it is more suitable for decisional queries that are defined by a set of columns (measures and dimensions) from warehouse. However, the NoSQL model columns do not offer online analysis operators (OLAP) for exploiting the data warehouse.We present in this thesis new solutions for logical and physical modeling of columnar NoSQL data warehouses. We have proposed a new approach that allows building data cubes by taking the characteristics of the columnar environment into account. Thus, we have defined new cube operators which allow building columnar cubes. C-CUBE (Columnar-CUBE) for columnar relational data warehouses. MC-CUBE (MapReduce Columnar-CUBE) for columnar NoSQL data warehouses when measures and dimensions are stored in different tables. Finally, CN-CUBE (Columnar NoSQL-CUBE) when measures and dimensions are gathered in the same table according a new logical model that we proposed. We have studied the NoSQL dimensional data model performance and our OLAP operators, and we have proposed a new star join index C-SJI (Columnar-Star join index) suitable for columnar NoSQL data warehouses which store measures and dimensions separately. To evaluate our contribution, we have defined a cost model to measure the impact of the use of this index. Furthermore, we have proposed a logic model called FLM (Flat Logical Model) to represent a data cube NoSQL oriented columns and enable a better management by columnar NoSQL DBMS.To validate our contributions, we have developed a software framework CG-CDW (Cube Generation for Data Warehouses Columnar) to generate OLAP cubes from columnar data warehouses. Also, we have developed a columnar NoSQL decisional benchmark CNSSB (Columnar NoSQL Star Schema Benchmark) based on the SSB and finally, we conducted several tests that have shown the effectiveness of different aggregation operators that we proposed.

Orientador: Marco Tulio Ospina Patino / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Agrícola / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T00:18:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Machado_MarinaFalascina_M.pdf: 3931311 bytes, checksum: 7f74f4e7f9b6d8ac5b30284bd0fc0311 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: A agricultura brasileira apresentou, nos últimos anos, altas taxas de crescimento, sobretudo no setor de grãos. Para o acondicionamento de toda a produção de forma adequada, as redes de armazenamento são indispensáveis, e os armazéns, por sua vez, devem estar localizados em áreas de maior concentração de produção de grãos evitando a perda desnecessária do produto e garantindo a sua qualidade. O presente trabalho buscou diagnosticar a capacidade de armazenamento existente e, comprovar, calculando a previsão futura da produção, da produtividade e da área a necessidade de infraestrutura de armazenamento de grãos, assim como simular o tamanho, o número, o custo e a localização de novas unidades de armazenamento nas principais microrregiões produtoras. O trabalho foi dividido em três etapas: a primeira consistiu no diagnóstico da quantidade existente de unidades estáticas de armazenamento de grãos no país e na previsão da produção da produtividade e área das culturas da soja, do milho e do arroz. Na segunda etapa foram identificadas as 100 principais microrregiões produtoras de grãos do Brasil, e a localização de novas unidades de armazenamento. A terceira etapa consistiu na definição do número e tamanho das unidades de armazenamento que devem ser instaladas para suprir a futura necessidade de armazenamento de grãos, no custo e na viabilidade econômica total necessária para adequada implementação dessas unidades de armazenamento de grãos em cada microrregião. Os resultados da previsão mostram que a produção continuará crescendo nos próximos dez anos. Os casos mais críticos de déficit de armazenamento de grãos estão nas microrregiões de Alto Teles Pires - MT, Barreiras - BA, Dourados - MS, Sudoeste de Goiás - GO e Toledo - PR. Para armazenar toda a produção de grãos nessas cinco microrregiões são necessárias 544 unidades de vinte mil toneladas e o custo dessa instalação é de R$2,1 bilhões. A viabilidade econômica mostrou que o investimento em unidades de armazenamento de grãos apresenta uma rentabilidade mínima, mas as condições de financiamento do Plano Nacional de Armazenagem (PNA) do governo brasileiro com juros negativos, dois anos de carência e nove para pagar tornam atrativo esse tipo de investimentos / Abstract: Brazilian agriculture in the last years showed high growth rates, particularly in the grain sector. For the packaging of all production in an appropriate way, storage networks are indispensable, and the warehouses, in turn, should be located in areas of high concentration of grain production avoiding the unnecessary loss of product and ensuring their quality. This study aimed to diagnose existing storage capacity, and prove, calculating the prediction of future production, productivity and area, the need for grain storage infrastructure, as well as simulate the size, number, cost and location of new storage units in major producing micro regions. The study was divided into three stages: the first consisted in the diagnosis of the amount of existing static units of grain storage in the country and in forecasting the production, the productivity and area of soybean, corn and rice. In the second stage were defined 100 main micro regions producing grain in Brazil, identifying each of these micro regions and final location of the storage units. The third step consisted to determine the number and size of storage units that should be installed to supply the future need for grain storage, the cost and the economic viability total required for proper implementation of these storage units in each micro grains. The forecast results show that production will continue growing over the next ten years. The most critical micro regions with deficit of grain storage are in Alto TelesPires-MT, Barreiras -BA, Dourados -MS, Sudoeste de Goiás -GO e Toledo -PR. To store all the grain production of these five micro regions, 544unitsof twenty thousand tons each are needed at a cost of R$2.1 billion. The economic feasibility showed that investment in new storage units provide a minimum return but the conditions of the National Storage Plan (PNA) of the Brazilian Government with negative rates and two year grace period and nine years for payment make attractive this type of investment / Mestrado / Planejamento e Desenvolvimento Rural Sustentável / Mestra em Engenharia Agrícola

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate how companies in third-party logistics operate within customized warehouse solutions to identify which factors affect the work processes.  Method – To fulfil the purpose of the study, a literature study was conducted to create a theoretical framework to obtain an understanding of the subject TPL. Furthermore, to fulfil the purpose, a case study was conducted at a TPL company. The case study consisted of interviews and observations in which generated the empirical data for the analysis. The outcome of the data was interpreted and analysed by triangulation in order to detect patterns from different perspectives.  Findings – It can be stated that the work conducted in TPL-companies with customized warehousing solutions varies, due to the fact that different customers, with different products are handled in different ways. Furthermore, it emerged that there are at least 11 factors, both external and internal, that are estimated to have a direct impact on the work process in TPL- companies with customized warehousing solutions.  Implications – The results of the study have contributed to increasing the understanding of how TPL-companies work with customized warehousing solutions and also contributed to identify a number of factors that affect the work processes. With the result obtained, the study has contributed to supplementing the lack of research concerning TPL from a TPL perspective.  By visualizing the work process in TPL companies with customized warehouse solutions and highlighting factors that affect the work process in customized warehouses, this study can contribute to support the internal work in TPL companies. Furthermore, the improvement measures presented for seven of the factors can be used as a tool for TPL companies.  Limitations – The limitations of the study are that only one TPL company was included in the case study and three of the case company’s employees participated in the empirical collection. If multiple TPL companies and respondents with different areas of responsibility, one could assume that more factors than the 11 found in this study, could have been identified. Thus, the generalizability is limited for the study.

The Swedish retail sector is experiencing a structural shift, where the e-commerce sector isgrowing steadily each year. As of 2017, e-commerce had seen an average annual growth rateof 14% over the past decade. Currently, e-commerce corresponds to 8.7% of the total retailsector. As the e-commerce sector is growing, so are the requirements for the underlyinglogistics operations. Larger trade volumes implicate a greater need of warehouses andlogistics real estate.The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate how the changing retail landscape will affectdemand for logistics real estate in Sweden for the coming decade. The study is based on amixed-method research design, combining a data analysis on the current market situationwith scenario-based interviews with 14 professionals about future market expectations. Thisthesis is structured around the DAS-framework, a strategy model developed at the Real Estateand Housing department at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.From observations, the conclusion is that the logistics real estate stock in Sweden needs to becomplemented by several, smaller distribution terminals located in close vicinity to the citycores. This in order to address the last-mile issue from the continued development of ecommercein areas with dense population. / Den svenska handelssektorn genomgår ett strukturellt skifte, där e-handelssektorn växerstadigt varje år. Under det senaste decenniet har e-handelssektorn i genomsnitt haft en årligtillväxt om 14% och utgör per 2017 8,7% av den totala detaljhandeln. I takt med att ehandelssektornväxer sig större ökar också krav på lager- och logistikfastigheter. Störrehandelsvolymer innebär ett större behov av lager- och logistikyta.Syftet med denna masteruppsats är att undersöka hur e-handelns utveckling kommer attpåverka efterfrågan inom logistiksektorn på den framtida svenska fastighetsmarknaden.Studien baseras på en blandad forskningsmetod, dels genom en data-analys av den nuvarandesituationen inom logistiksektorn, och dels genom scenario-baserade intervjuer med 14professionella aktörer om framtida marknadsförväntningar. Uppsatsen är strukturerad efterDAS-framework, en strategisk modell utvecklad av fastighetsavdelningen på Delfts TekniskaUniversitet i Nederländerna.Det som kunnat observeras är att det finns ett framtida behov av att komplimentera detsvenska utbudet av logistikfastigheter med flera, mindre distributionsterminaler i stadsnäralägen. Detta för att försöka lösa den rådande ”sista-mil” distributionsproblematik som en ökade-handel skulle innebära, tillsammans med en högre befolkningstäthet i stadsområden.

This dissertation explores debt as an instrument of control deployed by German private and state actors in the Ottoman Empire between the 1870s and 1919. The everyday functioning of empire relies on seemingly abstract and smooth financial transactions across vast territories. Studying these processes architecturally foregrounds the material reality of the “immaterial” system of modern finance, revealing the frictions it creates, and thereby centers how power is produced and subverted within and across imperial borders. Focusing largely on Deutsche Bank’s archives and related sources, “The Architecture of German Capitalist Imperialism” traces the movement of German capital into Ottoman territory. The corresponding material system—from financial office buildings in Constantinople to farms, factories and trading posts in the Ottoman region of Cilicia—served to enable Deutsche Bank, a private German bank with significant state support, to carry out its business in a foreign, non-colonized territory. In the Ottoman capital, the Deutsche Bank branch office and the headquarters of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration (OPDA, founded by international creditors following the Ottoman government’s 1875 declaration of bankruptcy) constituted the central structures of the debt system. Yet to increase agricultural tax revenue—thus helping to repay foreign debt and serving as collateral for new loans—the OPDA operationalized a system of resource extraction across a wide economic geography, reaching far into the Anatolian provinces. As a major creditor of the Ottoman government, Deutsche Bank was central to this OPDA project while also developing its own agricultural cotton program in the Anatolian countryside. What emerged, as this dissertation demonstrates, was a vast inter-imperial architectural network engendered by, and servicing, Ottoman debt. To understand how that debt operated on the ground, the study follows the flows of capital through the more informal spaces that mostly go unacknowledged in both architectural and economic history—such as a local banker’s private villa in Cilicia and warehouse facilities at Deutsche Bank’s cotton factory—and explores the land regime the Germans encountered in the Ottoman countryside. It shows that financial transactions required physical translation and transformation, which generated dependencies for Deutsche Bank from local actors, thus undermining the bank’s dominance particularly in the “hinterland” and slowing down the German Empire’s imperial push. By focusing on the multifaceted built environment of capitalist imperialism, this dissertation challenges well-established boundaries of rural and urban, private and imperial, metropole and colony and establishes architecture as both a medium and a product of the logics of modern finance developed in the late nineteenth century. Directing attention to the material foundations of imperial finance illuminates the functioning of global capitalism at its founding moment, throwing long shadows into the twentieth century.

Decision support systems are interactive, computer-based information systems that provide data and analysis tools in order to better assist managers on different levels of organization in the process of decision making. Data warehouses (DWs) have been developed and deployed as an integral part of decision support systems. <p><p>A data warehouse is a database that allows to store high volume of historical data required for analytical purposes. This data is extracted from operational databases, transformed into a coherent whole, and loaded into a DW during the extraction-transformation-loading (ETL) process. <p><p>DW data can be dynamically manipulated using on-line analytical processing (OLAP) systems. DW and OLAP systems rely on a multidimensional model that includes measures, dimensions, and hierarchies. Measures are usually numeric additive values that are used for quantitative evaluation of different aspects about organization. Dimensions provide different analysis perspectives while hierarchies allow to analyze measures on different levels of detail. <p><p>Nevertheless, currently, designers as well as users find difficult to specify multidimensional elements required for analysis. One reason for that is the lack of conceptual models for DW and OLAP system design, which would allow to express data requirements on an abstract level without considering implementation details. Another problem is that many kinds of complex hierarchies arising in real-world situations are not addressed by current DW and OLAP systems.<p><p>In order to help designers to build conceptual models for decision-support systems and to help users in better understanding the data to be analyzed, in this thesis we propose the MultiDimER model - a conceptual model used for representing multidimensional data for DW and OLAP applications. Our model is mainly based on the existing ER constructs, for example, entity types, attributes, relationship types with their usual semantics, allowing to represent the common concepts of dimensions, hierarchies, and measures. It also includes a conceptual classification of different kinds of hierarchies existing in real-world situations and proposes graphical notations for them.<p><p>On the other hand, currently users of DW and OLAP systems demand also the inclusion of spatial data, visualization of which allows to reveal patterns that are difficult to discover otherwise. The advantage of using spatial data in the analysis process is widely recognized since it allows to reveal patterns that are difficult to discover otherwise. <p><p>However, although DWs typically include a spatial or a location dimension, this dimension is usually represented in an alphanumeric format. Furthermore, there is still a lack of a systematic study that analyze the inclusion as well as the management of hierarchies and measures that are represented using spatial data. <p><p>With the aim of satisfying the growing requirements of decision-making users, we extend the MultiDimER model by allowing to include spatial data in the different elements composing the multidimensional model. The novelty of our contribution lays in the fact that a multidimensional model is seldom used for representing spatial data. To succeed with our proposal, we applied the research achievements in the field of spatial databases to the specific features of a multidimensional model. The spatial extension of a multidimensional model raises several issues, to which we refer in this thesis, such as the influence of different topological relationships between spatial objects forming a hierarchy on the procedures required for measure aggregations, aggregations of spatial measures, the inclusion of spatial measures without the presence of spatial dimensions, among others. <p><p>Moreover, one of the important characteristics of multidimensional models is the presence of a time dimension for keeping track of changes in measures. However, this dimension cannot be used to model changes in other dimensions. <p>Therefore, usual multidimensional models are not symmetric in the way of representing changes for measures and dimensions. Further, there is still a lack of analysis indicating which concepts already developed for providing temporal support in conventional databases can be applied and be useful for different elements composing a multidimensional model. <p><p>In order to handle in a similar manner temporal changes to all elements of a multidimensional model, we introduce a temporal extension for the MultiDimER model. This extension is based on the research in the area of temporal databases, which have been successfully used for modeling time-varying information for several decades. We propose the inclusion of different temporal types, such as valid and transaction time, which are obtained from source systems, in addition to the DW loading time generated in DWs. We use this temporal support for a conceptual representation of time-varying dimensions, hierarchies, and measures. We also refer to specific constraints that should be imposed on time-varying hierarchies and to the problem of handling multiple time granularities between source systems and DWs. <p><p>Furthermore, the design of DWs is not an easy task. It requires to consider all phases from the requirements specification to the final implementation including the ETL process. It should also take into account that the inclusion of different data items in a DW depends on both, users' needs and data availability in source systems. However, currently, designers must rely on their experience due to the lack of a methodological framework that considers above-mentioned aspects. <p><p>In order to assist developers during the DW design process, we propose a methodology for the design of conventional, spatial, and temporal DWs. We refer to different phases, such as requirements specification, conceptual, logical, and physical modeling. We include three different methods for requirements specification depending on whether users, operational data sources, or both are the driving force in the process of requirement gathering. We show how each method leads to the creation of a conceptual multidimensional model. We also present logical and physical design phases that refer to DW structures and the ETL process.<p><p>To ensure the correctness of the proposed conceptual models, i.e. with conventional data, with the spatial data, and with time-varying data, we formally define them providing their syntax and semantics. With the aim of assessing the usability of our conceptual model including representation of different kinds of hierarchies as well as spatial and temporal support, we present real-world examples. Pursuing the goal that the proposed conceptual solutions can be implemented, we include their logical representations using relational and object-relational databases.<p> / Doctorat en sciences appliquées / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished