[R-sig-Geo] Proper use of maptools::elide to both scale AND shift a polygon object

[Richard Careaga]

My goal is to produce a choropleth map in which farflung units, like 
Hawaii, are brought into the bounding box for the continental US or 
brought in and downscaled, like Alaska. I would also like to "outset" 
the three smallest units within the US, the states of Rhode Island and 
Delaware and the District of Columbia. I'm finding that I cannot BOTH 
move and enlarge the same object.

Beginning with a shapefile, us, the following works

us_aea = spTransform(us, CRS("+proj=laea +lat_0=45 +lon_0=-100 +x_0=0 
+y_0=0 +a=6370997 +b=6370997 +units=m +no_defs"))
us_aea at data$id = rownames(us_aea at data)

alaska = us_aea[us_aea$STATEFP=="02",]
alaska = elide(alaska, rotate=-50)
alaska = elide(alaska, scale=max(apply(bbox(alaska), 1, diff)) / 2.3)
#alaska = elide(alaska, scale=max(apply(bbox(alaska), 1, diff)) / 5) # 
makes smaller
#alaska = elide(alaska, scale=max(apply(bbox(alaska), 1, diff)) / 1) # 
makes larger
alaska = elide(alaska, shift=c(-2100000, -2500000))
proj4string(alaska) = proj4string(us_aea)

hawaii = us_aea[us_aea$STATEFP=="15",]
hawaii = elide(hawaii, rotate=-35)
hawaii = elide(hawaii, shift=c(5400000, -1400000))
proj4string(hawaii) = proj4string(us_aea)

us_aea = us_aea[!us_aea$STATEFP %in% c("02", "15"),]
us_aea = rbind(us_aea, alaska, hawaii)


to properly place AK & HI

and

rhode_island = us_aea[us_aea$STATEFP=="44",]
rhode_island = elide(rhode_island, shift=c(0,-200000))
proj4string(rhode_island) = proj4string(us_aea)


delaware = us_aea[us_aea$STATEFP=="10",]
delaware = elide(delaware, shift=c(200000,0))
proj4string(delaware) = proj4string(us_aea)

dc = us_aea[us_aea$STATEFP=="11",]
#dc = elide(dc, scale=max(apply(bbox(dc), 1, diff)) / .999) # can't make 
smaller than 1.0
#dc = elide(dc, scale = 2000) # makes it invisible
dc = elide(dc, shift=c(250000,-125000))
proj4string(dc) = proj4string(us_aea)

us_aea = us_aea[!us_aea$STATEFP %in% c("44", "10", "11"),]
us_aea = rbind(us_aea, delaware, rhode_island, dc)

us50 <- fortify(us_aea, region="STUSPS")
us50 = remove.territories(us50)

p = ggplot(data=us50) +
     geom_map(map=us50, aes(x=long, y=lat, map_id=id, group=group), 
,fill="white", color="dark grey", size=0.15) +
     no_ylab +
     no_xlab +
     plain_theme
p

will plot everything, but when I uncomment either of the lines in the dc 
block the SpatialPolygonsDataFrame representing the District of Columbia 
vanishes from sight.

I can probably find a workaround by plotting DC in a separate layer 
because I don't worry about its CRS since it is small, very simply 
shaped, won't move far and the distortion is tolerable for this kind of 
thematic map. I'd prefer, however, to have everything in a single object.

Is it simply that the shift argument "values to shift the coordinates of 
the input object; this is made ineffective by the scale argument" means 
what I'm trying to do is impossible? (Seems to work for the case of AK, 
though.) Or is it not that subtle?

Thanks,

Richard Careaga



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