Rough approximations on a complete completely distributive lattice with applications to generalized rough sets

The generalizations of rough sets considered with respect to similarity relation, covers and fuzzy relations, are main research topics of rough set theory. However, these generalizations have shown less connection among each other and have not been brought into a unified framework, which has limited the in-depth research and application of rough set theory. In this paper the complete completely distributive (CCD) lattice is selected as the mathematical foundation on which definitions of lower and upper approximations that form the basic concepts of rough set theory are proposed. These definitions result from the concept of cover introduced on a CCD lattice and improve the approximations of the existing crisp generalizations of rough sets with respect to similarity relation and covers. When T-similarity relation is considered, the existing fuzzy rough sets are the special cases of our proposed approximations on a CCD lattice. Thus these generalizations of rough sets are brought into a unified framework, and a wider mathematical foundation for rough set theory is established. (C) 2005 Published by Elsevier Inc.