[R-sig-Geo] thinning a SpatialPolygonsDataFrame

[Pinaud David]

Hi Michael,
Roger is fully right, this function does not preserve the topology, so 
be aware of that, some problems can occur...
If you want to use shapefiles::dp() just for raw plotting and visual 
simplification, you can try (on the fly):

library(rgdal)
library(shapefiles)

fr <- readOGR("polygonFRA_WGS84.shp", "polygonFRA_WGS84") # a shapefile 
of France with complex topology (holes, islands...) in WGS84 coordinates
pp <- slot(fr, "polygons") # take the polygons
cf <- coordinates(slot(pp[[39]], "Polygons")[[1]])  # extract the 
coordinates of the main polygon ("continental France")
pf <- list(x=cf[,1], y=cf[,2]) # list of coordinates, as dp() needs a 
list and not a matrix or dataframe...
cf1 <- dp(pf, 0.1) # simplification, with a bandwith of 0.1 decimal degree
plot(fr)  # to see the result
points(cf1, col="red", t="l")

HTH
David

Michael Friendly a écrit :
> I think, for my application, I'd be happy with the D-P polyline 
> simplification algorithm, because that is what is used
> in SAS (worked well), and I don't think there are unusual topologies 
> in my map of France that would be so severely
> out of whack as to lead to *significant* visual artifacts.  In fact, 
> you might well expect some artifacts from any visual
> thinning, but it's a matter of the tradeoff in the way the thinned map 
> is used in a visualization.  Mark Monmonier's
> US Visibility Map might be an extremely thinned, but highly useful 
> example.
>
> For R spatial analysis, I think this is worth pursuing and integrating 
> into sp methods.  In SAS, proc greduce works simply
> by adding another variable, density, to the (x,y) coordinates of the 
> spatial polygons, density %in% 1:5, where density==5
> is the full map.  It is then a simple matter to subset the polygon 
> outlines by saying
>
> data smallmap;
>    set mymap;
>    where density<4;
>
> or
>
> proc gmap map=mymap(where=(density<4));
> ...
>
> Meanwhile, I can't see easily how I could use shapefiles::dp() to thin 
> my Guerry::gfrance maps, because the documentation is,
> shall we say, somewhat thin.
> -Michael
>
>
>
> Roger Bivand wrote:
>> On Wed, 18 Nov 2009, Pinaud David wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Michael,
>>> maybe you should try the function dp() in the package shapefiles 
>>> that is an implementation of the Douglas-Peucker polyLine 
>>> simplification algorithm.
>>
>> Note that its help page does warn that it is not topology-preserving, 
>> that is that lines are generalised, but that coincident lines 
>> (boundaries of neighbouring polygons) may be generalised differently. 
>> GEOS offers a topology-preserving line generalisation facility, which 
>> ought to take longer but do better than dp(), because it will not 
>> lead to visual artefacts (overlapping polygons, interpolygon slivers, 
>> etc.).
>>
>> Roger
>>
>>> HTH
>>> David
>>>
>>> Michael Friendly a écrit :
>>>> The Guerry package contains two maps of france (gfrance, gfrance85) 
>>>> which are quite detailed and large in size (~900K).
>>>> In writing a vignette for the package, there are quite a few 
>>>> figures that use the map multiple times in a layout, and
>>>> consequently result in huge file sizes for the .PDF files created.  
>>>> For these purposes, the map need not be nearly
>>>> so detailed.
>>>>
>>>> I'm wondering if there is a facility to "thin" the map by drawing 
>>>> it at a lower density of lines in the polygon regions.
>>>> When I was working with SAS, there was a GREDUCE procedure that did 
>>>> this nicely.
>>>>
>>>> thanks,
>>>> -Michael
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>

-- 
***************************************************
David PINAUD
Ingénieur de Recherche "Analyses spatiales"

Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé - CNRS UPR1934
79360 Villiers-en-Bois, France 
poste 485
Tel: +33 (0)5.49.09.35.58
Fax: +33 (0)5.49.09.65.26
http://www.cebc.cnrs.fr/

***************************************************




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