[R-sig-Geo] Obtaining 3d surface area using polygon layer and DEM grid

[Barry Rowlingson]

On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 3:16 PM, Sharon Baruch-Mordo
<sharonb_m at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello list,
>
> Is there anyway to calculate in R the 3D surface of a polygon spatial object using a DEM grid similar to the ArcView tool developed by Jenness (2004; http://www.jennessent.com/arcview/surface_tools.htm)?

 Any way?  Well yes, but that way may mean you implementing the
algorithm described in the paper. It looks quite simple, and probably
best written in C for speed. A pure R implementation might be very
slow for large DEMs.

 I don't know of any R implementation of a surface area algorithm for
R at the moment.

Barry