rggplot2google-earthgeom-sf

How to Remove Degree and Cardinal Direction Symbols from ggplot Coordinate Axes


I'm creating a map in ggplot using a kml file of point data from google earth.

ggplot() +
  geom_polygon(data = us, aes(x=long, y=lat, group=group), color = "black", fill = "white")+ 
  geom_polygon(data = states, aes(x=long, y=lat, group=group), color = "black") +
  geom_polygon(data = sw_counties, aes(x=long, y=lat, group=group), color = "black", fill = "white")

Before I add my point data, everything looks good with my map as far as the axes tick marks are concerned

enter image description here

The issue arises when I add my point data using geom_sf. The axes tick marks now show what I believe are the degrees symbols and the cardinal direction associated with the coordinates.

ggplot() +
  geom_polygon(data = us, aes(x=long, y=lat, group=group), color = "black", fill = "white")+ 
  geom_polygon(data = states, aes(x=long, y=lat, group=group), color = "black") +
  geom_polygon(data = sw_counties, aes(x=long, y=lat, group=group), color = "black", fill = "white")+ 
  geom_sf(data = kml_points, aes(color = Name), size=3)

enter image description here

To the best of my knowledg this change occurs because the plot is drawing on my last layer, which is my google earth kml file, to create the axes. I realize this isn't a reproducible example, but is anyone aware of a workaround to remove the degrees and direction symbols from my axes tick marks? Maybe some way of specifying that the axes should be drawn from a previous map layer? Thank you!


Solution

  • You can override the default axis formatting by specifying labels = identity in scale_*_continuous():

    library(ggplot2)
    library(sf)
    
    nc <- st_read(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package="sf"))
    
    ggplot(nc) +
      geom_sf() +
      scale_x_continuous(labels = identity) +
      scale_y_continuous(labels = identity)
    

    Created on 2024-03-01 with reprex v2.0.2