rggplot2geospatialgrob

How can ggplot2 keep jittered locations within a map boundary, such as a US state?


Is there a way to keep points that are jittered on a map within a boundary of that map? In the example below, where jittered locations in southwestern Connecticut end up in the water or in an adjoining state, is there a way to have R jitter the location points but not over a map boundary?

Alternatively, is there some other technique, such as to create a table grob near each city to list the firms' names?

# create a data frame called "ct" of geolocations in two cities near the border of a US state (Connecticut).  Each firm has the same lat and longitude of one of the two cities

> dput(ct)
structure(list(city = structure(c(1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 2L, 2L, 
2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 
2L, 2L, 2L, 2L), .Label = c("Greenwich", "Stamford"), class = "factor"), 
    firm = structure(c(1L, 12L, 21L, 22L, 23L, 24L, 25L, 26L, 
    27L, 2L, 3L, 4L, 5L, 6L, 7L, 8L, 9L, 10L, 11L, 13L, 14L, 
    15L, 16L, 17L, 18L, 19L, 20L), .Label = c("A1", "A10", "A11", 
    "A12", "A13", "A14", "A15", "A16", "A17", "A18", "A19", "A2", 
    "A20", "A21", "A22", "A23", "A24", "A25", "A26", "A27", "A3", 
    "A4", "A5", "A6", "A7", "A8", "A9"), class = "factor"), long = c(-73.63, 
    -73.63, -73.63, -73.63, -73.63, -73.55, -73.55, -73.55, -73.55, 
    -73.55, -73.55, -73.55, -73.55, -73.55, -73.55, -73.55, -73.55, 
    -73.55, -73.55, -73.55, -73.55, -73.55, -73.55, -73.55, -73.55, 
    -73.55, -73.55), lat = c(41.06, 41.06, 41.06, 41.06, 41.06, 
    41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 
    41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 
    41.09, 41.09, 41.09, 41.09)), .Names = c("city", "firm", 
"long", "lat"), row.names = c(NA, -27L), class = "data.frame")


library(ggplot2)
# load the map of the United States
all_states <- map_data("state")
# choose to map the borders only of the state of Connecticut
st.map <- subset(all_states, region == "connecticut")

# plot the points for the firms with minimal jitter that still distinguishes each point
ggplot(ct, aes(long, lat)) + 
  geom_polygon(data=st.map, aes(x=long, y=lat, group = group), colour="grey70", fill="white") +
  coord_map() + 
  geom_point(position=position_jitter(width=.1, height=.1), size=2)

enter image description here

Changing each longitude or latitude a tiny bit, as in this question, won't work because there are too many points and I am hoping for an algorithmic solution, since I have many situations where this crowding and border-crossing could arise. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22943110/jitter-coordinates

Thank you for any suggestions or answers.


Solution

  • You can make your own jitter function that jitters the data. Then use the function pnt.in.poly from SDMTools to check if the point is inside the polygon. Otherwise you just jitter the original point again. See below for an example:

    require(SDMTools)
    bounded_jitter <- function(mapping, data, bounds, width, height, ...){
      # data2 is the jittered data
      data2 <- data
      data2[, paste(mapping$x)] <- rnorm(nrow(data), data[, paste(mapping$x)], width/1.96)
      data2[, paste(mapping$y)] <- rnorm(nrow(data), data[, paste(mapping$y)], height/1.96)
      # is it inside the polygon?
      idx <- as.logical(pnt.in.poly(pnts = data2[, c(paste(mapping$x), paste(mapping$y))],  
                                    poly.pnts = bounds)[, 'pip'])
      while(!all(idx)) { # redo for points outside polygon
        data2[!idx, paste(mapping$x)] <- rnorm(sum(!idx), data[!idx, paste(mapping$x)], width/1.96)
        data2[!idx, paste(mapping$y)] <- rnorm(sum(!idx), data[!idx, paste(mapping$y)], height/1.96)
        idx <- as.logical(pnt.in.poly(pnts = data2[, c(paste(mapping$x), paste(mapping$y))],  
                                      poly.pnts = bounds)[, 'pip'])
      }
      # the point
      geom_point(data = data2, mapping, ...)
    }
    # plot the points for the firms with minimal jitter that still distinguishes each point
    ggplot(ct, aes(long, lat)) + 
      geom_polygon(data=st.map, aes(x=long, y=lat, group = group), colour="grey70", fill="white") +
      coord_map() + 
      geom_point(size=2) + 
      bounded_jitter(mapping = aes(x=long, y=lat), 
                     data = ct, 
                     bounds = st.map[, c('long', 'lat')], 
                     width = .1, 
                     height = .1)
    

    resulting plot: Connecticut with jittered points inside