A taxonomy of monotonicity properties for the aggregation of multidimensional data

The property of monotonicity, which requires a function to preserve a given order, has been considered the standard in the aggregation of real numbers for decades. In this paper, we argue that, for the case of multidimensional data, an order-based definition of monotonicity is far too restrictive. We propose several meaningful alternatives to this property not involving the preservation of a given order by returning to its early origins stemming from the field of calculus. Numerous aggregation methods for multidimensional data commonly used by practitioners are studied within our new framework.