rr-sfmultilinestring

Connect Linestrings


How can i connect two linestrings?

It is possible to lay a very slim buffer around the lines and then connect them like so:

one_line <- lines %>% 
  st_buffer(0.05) %>% 
  st_intersection() %>% 
  st_union() %>% 
  st_cast('LINESTRING')

There are 2 problems with this:

a) below is a very small subset of my data containing one such disconnected line segment - if i use the above method on the small part it forms a complete polygon which, when converted to a linestring just makes a very narrow loop

b) if i use the whole data set it kind of works but creates lines at the approximate distance of the buffer around my original line. See picture below:

Blue & red are the edge lines while black would be the original.

enter image description here

I thought to simply average them out but when i convert the 2 lines to coordinates (st_coordinates()), the resulting tables have different lengths and are not in order.

I looked around but did not really find any useful answers.

Here is a dput of the geometry data:

lines <- structure(list(structure(list(structure(c(2880, 2880.92, 2881.72, 
                                                2882.47, 2883.17, 2883.84, 2884.5, 2894.05, 2894.69, 2895.29393034826, 
                                                340255.362641509, 340257.22, 340259.03, 340260.85, 340262.69, 
                                                340264.55, 340266.4, 340293.7, 340295.61, 340297.500995024), .Dim = c(10L, 
                                                                                                                      2L)), structure(c(2907.22402724177, 2914.21353757771, 340330.886392736, 
                                                                                                                                        340350.2), .Dim = c(2L, 2L))), class = c("XY", "MULTILINESTRING", 
                                                                                                                                                                                 "sfg")), structure(c(2895.3, 2896.82, 2897.26, 2897.72, 2907.2, 
                                                                                                                                                                                                      340297.52, 340302.26, 340303.58, 340304.89, 340330.82), .Dim = c(5L, 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       2L), class = c("XY", "LINESTRING", "sfg"))), n_empty = 0L, crs = structure(list(
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         input = "EPSG:31256", wkt = "PROJCRS[\"MGI / Austria GK East\",\n    BASEGEOGCRS[\"MGI\",\n        DATUM[\"Militar-Geographische Institut\",\n            ELLIPSOID[\"Bessel 1841\",6377397.155,299.1528128,\n                LENGTHUNIT[\"metre\",1]]],\n        PRIMEM[\"Greenwich\",0,\n            ANGLEUNIT[\"degree\",0.0174532925199433]],\n        ID[\"EPSG\",4312]],\n    CONVERSION[\"Austria Gauss-Kruger East\",\n        METHOD[\"Transverse Mercator\",\n            ID[\"EPSG\",9807]],\n        PARAMETER[\"Latitude of natural origin\",0,\n            ANGLEUNIT[\"degree\",0.0174532925199433],\n            ID[\"EPSG\",8801]],\n        PARAMETER[\"Longitude of natural origin\",16.3333333333333,\n            ANGLEUNIT[\"degree\",0.0174532925199433],\n            ID[\"EPSG\",8802]],\n        PARAMETER[\"Scale factor at natural origin\",1,\n            SCALEUNIT[\"unity\",1],\n            ID[\"EPSG\",8805]],\n        PARAMETER[\"False easting\",0,\n            LENGTHUNIT[\"metre\",1],\n            ID[\"EPSG\",8806]],\n        PARAMETER[\"False northing\",-5000000,\n            LENGTHUNIT[\"metre\",1],\n            ID[\"EPSG\",8807]]],\n    CS[Cartesian,2],\n        AXIS[\"northing (X)\",north,\n            ORDER[1],\n            LENGTHUNIT[\"metre\",1]],\n        AXIS[\"easting (Y)\",east,\n            ORDER[2],\n            LENGTHUNIT[\"metre\",1]],\n    USAGE[\n        SCOPE[\"Engineering survey, topographic mapping.\"],\n        AREA[\"Austria east of 14°50'E of Greenwich (32°30'E of Ferro).\"],\n        BBOX[46.56,14.83,49.02,17.17]],\n    ID[\"EPSG\",31256]]"), class = "crs"), idx = structure(c(1, 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             2, 1, 1), .Dim = c(2L, 2L)), class = c("sfc_GEOMETRY", "sfc"), precision = 0, bbox = structure(c(xmin = 2880, 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              ymin = 340255.362641509, xmax = 2914.21353757771, ymax = 340350.2
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             ), class = "bbox"), classes = c("MULTILINESTRING", "LINESTRING"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             ))

Solution

  • This is an incomplete answer because it still requires some manual input but it can be generalized by implementing a few rules. The idea is to find the places where the line is broken and then go to the start/endpoints of the closest line. Then make a line segment bridging the break and combining all the line segments.

    library(lwgeom)
    library(tidyverse)
    library(sf)
    
    line1 <- lines %>% 
      st_sf() %>% 
      st_combine() %>% 
      st_sf() %>% 
      st_line_merge() %>% 
      st_cast("LINESTRING") 
    
    ### this is still some manual work which needs to be improved 
    newline1 <- c(st_startpoint(line1[3,]), st_endpoint(line1[2,])) %>%
      st_combine() %>% 
      st_cast("MULTIPOINT") %>%
      st_union() %>%
      st_cast("LINESTRING") %>% 
      st_sf()
    
    newline2 <- c(st_startpoint(line1[2,]), st_endpoint(line1[1,])) %>%
      st_combine() %>% 
      st_cast("MULTIPOINT") %>%
      st_union() %>%
      st_cast("LINESTRING") %>% 
      st_sf()
    
    line1[nrow(line1)+1,]<-newline1
    line1[nrow(line1)+1,]<-newline2
    ###
    
    line1_uni <- line1 %>% 
      st_sf() %>% 
      st_combine() %>% 
      st_sf() %>% 
      st_line_merge() %>% 
      st_cast("LINESTRING") %>% 
      st_sf()
    
    line1_uni
    
    Simple feature collection with 1 feature and 0 fields
    Geometry type: LINESTRING
    Dimension:     XY
    Bounding box:  xmin: 2880 ymin: 340255.4 xmax: 2914.214 ymax: 340350.2
    Projected CRS: MGI / Austria GK East
                            geometry
    1 LINESTRING (2880 340255.4, ...