Author(s): Nabil I. Hachem, Michael A. Gennert, and Matthew O. Ward, Computer Science Department, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609

Source: IEEE Data Engineering Journal, March 1993.

Abstract: The long-term goal of the Gaea project is to develop an extensible, object-oriented data management and analysis system to be used by researchers in the field of global change.

The current goal is to develop a prototype, which can be used by geographers in a user-friendly manner, yet permits integration of heterogeneous and complex data types, and interactive development of sophisticated methods for data analysis, prediction, and display. Focus is on the object manipulation and analysis aspects of the system, and the management of ``meta-data,'' that is, data about the data.

The general abilities of the system will include: 1) deriving information about spatio-temporal objects, 2) maintaining information on the evolution of data objects, 3) providing derivation semantics for data objects, 4) the management of user-specified experiments, 5) providing a visual environment for browsing, querying, and analysis, and 6) providing user-extensible data and operator types.