[R-sig-Geo] FW: [STATSGRASS] Questions on calculating minimum distance between polygons and map attributes after m.in.e00

[Kristian Skrede Gleditsch]

Just to clarify my previous post: For contiguous countries the distance at
the boundary will be 0, but this is not the case for non-contiguous
countries.

For example, I have estinated a minimum distance between Germany and Italy
of about 175 km. For the UK and China it would clearly be more than 1000 km.
Although this could be measured by hand, finding a good estimate of the
shortest distance is increasingly more difficult the further appart the two
states are.

sincerely,

Kristian Skrede Gleditsch
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0521, USA
Tel: (858) 822 0535, Fax: (858) 534 7130
Email: kgleditsch at ucsd.edu  http://weber.ucsd.edu/~kgledits/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rich Shepard [mailto:rshepard at appl-ecosys.com]
> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 16:58
> To: Kristian Skrede Gleditsch
> Subject: Re: [STATSGRASS] Questions on calculating minimum distance
> between polygons and map attributes after m.in.e00
>
>
> On Thu, 20 Nov 2003, Kristian Skrede Gleditsch wrote:
>
> > I have a research project for which I would like to find the minimum
> > distance between nation states.
>
> Kristian,
>
>   Wouldn't this distance be 0 (zero) at the border between them?
>
> Rich
>
> --
> Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President
> Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
> <http://www.appl-ecosys.com>
>
>