Geo-spatial data mining in the analysis of a demographic database

Spatial data mining refers to the extraction of knowledge, spatial relationships, or other interesting patterns not explicitly stored in spatial databases. The approaches usually followed in the analysis of geo-spatial data with the aim of knowledge discovery are essentially characterised by the development of new algorithms, which treat the position and extension of objects mainly through the manipulation of their co-ordinates. In this paper a new approach to this process is presented, where geographic identifiers give the positional aspects of geographic data. These identifiers are manipulated using qualitative reasoning principles, which allow for the inference of new spatial relations required for the data mining step of the knowledge discovery process. The analysis of a demographic database, with the proposed principles, enabled the discovery of patterns that are hidden in the explored geo-spatial and demographic data.Acknowledgements Our acknowledgment to NEPS (Núcleo de Estudos da População e Sociedade) of University of Minho, for making the demographic data available.