Solving Real World Issues With RCzechia

Jindra Lacko

2020-07-17

Visualizing Czech Population

Population of the Czech Republic as per the latest census in 2011, per district (okres).

As the population distributed unevenly a log scale is used.

library(RCzechia)
library(ggplot2)
library(readxl)
library(dplyr)
library(httr)
library(sf)

tf <- tempfile(fileext = ".xls") # a temporary xls file

GET("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jlacko/RCzechia/master/data-raw/zvcr034.xls", 
    write_disk(tf))
## Response [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jlacko/RCzechia/master/data-raw/zvcr034.xls]
##   Date: 2020-07-17 06:45
##   Status: 200
##   Content-Type: application/octet-stream
##   Size: 44.5 kB
## <ON DISK>  /tmp/RtmpZK51Lo/filefb0b14da45736.xls

src <- read_excel(tf, range = "Data!B5:C97") # read in with original column names

colnames(src) <- c("NAZ_LAU1", "obyvatel") # meaningful names instead of the original ones

src <- src %>%
  mutate(obyvatel = as.double(obyvatel)) %>% 
    # convert from text to number
  mutate(NAZ_LAU1 = ifelse(NAZ_LAU1 == "Hlavní město Praha", "Praha", NAZ_LAU1)) 
    # rename Prague (from The Capital to a regular city)
  
okresni_data <- RCzechia::okresy("low") %>% # data shapefile
  inner_join(src, by = "NAZ_LAU1") 
    # key for data connection - note the use of inner (i.e. filtering) join

# report results
ggplot(data = okresni_data) +
  geom_sf(aes(fill = obyvatel), colour = NA) +
  geom_sf(data = republika("low"), color = "gray30", fill = NA) +
  scale_fill_viridis_c(trans = "log", labels = scales::comma) +
  labs(title = "Czech population",
       fill = "population\n(log scale)") +
  theme_bw() +
  theme(legend.text.align = 1,
        legend.title.align = 0.5)

Geocoding Locations & Drawing them on a Map

Drawing a map: three semi-random landmarks on map, with rivers shown for better orientation.

To get the geocoded data frame function RCzechia::geocode() is used.

library(RCzechia)
library(ggplot2)
library(sf)

borders <- RCzechia::republika("low")

rivers <- subset(RCzechia::reky(), Major == T)

mista <- data.frame(misto =  c("Kramářova vila", 
                               "Arcibiskupské zahrady v Kromeříži", 
                               "Hrad Bečov nad Teplou"),
                    adresa = c("Gogolova 212, Praha 1",
                               "Sněmovní náměstí 1, Kroměříž",
                               "nám. 5. května 1, Bečov nad Teplou"))

# from a string vector to sf spatial points object
POI <- RCzechia::geocode(mista$adresa) 

class(POI) # in {sf} package format = spatial and data frame
## [1] "sf"         "data.frame"

# report results
ggplot() +
  geom_sf(data = POI, color = "red", shape = 4, size = 2) +
  geom_sf(data = rivers, color = "steelblue", alpha = 0.5) +
  geom_sf(data = borders, color = "grey30", fill = NA) +
  labs(title = "Very Special Places") +
  theme_bw()

Distance Between Prague and Brno

Calculate distance between two spatial objects; the sf package supports (via gdal) point to point, point to polygon and polygon to polygon distances.

Calculating distance from Prague (#1 Czech city) to Brno (#2 Czech city).

library(dplyr)
library(RCzechia)
library(sf)
library(units)

obce <- RCzechia::obce_polygony()

praha <- subset(obce, NAZ_OBEC == "Praha")

brno <- subset(obce, NAZ_OBEC == "Brno")

vzdalenost <- sf::st_distance(praha, brno) %>%
  units::set_units("kilometers") # easier to interpret than meters, miles or decimal degrees..

# report results
print(vzdalenost[1])
## 152.8073 [kilometers]

Geographical Center of the City of Brno

The metaphysical center of the Brno City is well known. But where is the geographical center?

The center is calculated using sf::st_centroid() and reversely geocoded via RCzechia::revgeo().

Note the use of reky("Brno") to provide the parts of Svitava and Svratka relevant to a map of Brno city.

library(dplyr)
library(RCzechia)
library(ggplot2)
library(sf)

# polygon of Brno city
brno <- dplyr::filter(RCzechia::okresy(), KOD_LAU1 == "CZ0642")

# calculate centroid
pupek_brna <- brno %>%
  st_transform(5514) %>% # planar CRS (eastings & northings)
  st_set_agr('constant') %>%  # not strictly necessary, but avoids error message
  sf::st_centroid(brno) # calculate central point of a polygon

# the revgeo() function takes a sf points data frame and returns it back
# with address data in "revgeocoded"" column
adresa_pupku <- RCzechia::revgeo(pupek_brna)$revgeocoded

# report results
print(adresa_pupku)
## [1] "Žižkova 513/22, Veveří, 61600 Brno"

ggplot() +
  geom_sf(data = pupek_brna, col = "red", shape = 4) +
  geom_sf(data = reky("Brno"), color = "skyblue3") +
  geom_sf(data = brno, color = "grey50", fill = NA) +
  labs(title = "Geographical Center of Brno") +
  theme_bw()

Interactive Map

Interactive maps are powerful tools for data visualization. They are easy to produce with the leaflet package.

I found the stamen toner basemap a good company for interactive chloropleths - it gives enough context without distracting from the story of your data.

Note: it is technically impossible to make html in vignette interactive. As a consequence the result of code shown has been replaced by a static screenshot; the code itself is legit.

library(dplyr)
library(RCzechia)
library(leaflet)
library(sf)

src <- read.csv(url("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jlacko/RCzechia/master/data-raw/unempl.csv"), stringsAsFactors = F) 
# open data on unemployment from Czech Statistical Office - https://www.czso.cz/csu/czso/otevrena_data
# lightly edited for size (rows filtered)


src <- src %>%
  mutate(KOD_OBEC = as.character(uzemi_kod))  # keys in RCzechia are of type character

podklad <- RCzechia::obce_polygony() %>% # obce_polygony = municipalities in RCzechia package
  inner_join(src, by = "KOD_OBEC") %>% # linking by key
  filter(KOD_CZNUTS3 == "CZ071") # Olomoucký kraj

pal <- colorNumeric(palette = "viridis",  domain = podklad$hodnota)

leaflet() %>% 
  addProviderTiles("Stamen.Toner") %>% 
  addPolygons(data = podklad,
              fillColor = ~pal(hodnota),
              fillOpacity = 0.75,
              color = NA)

This is just a screenshot of the visualization, so it's not interactive. You can play with the interactive version by running the code shown.

Dissolving sf Polygons

Creating custom polygons by aggregating administrative units is a common use case in sales reporting and analysis.

In many use cases a simple dplyr::group_by() %>% dplyr::summarize() call will do. Some shapefiles (unfortunately including the ArcČR®500, on which {RCzechia} is based) are not that well behaved, and require repairing of faulty geometry.

Function RCzechia::union_sf() makes this task easier by automating some of the more common polygon repair tricks.

In this demonstration the Czech LAU1 units are grouped into two categories: those with odd lettered names, and those with even letters. They are then dissolved into two multipolygons.

library(RCzechia)
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
library(sf)


poly <- RCzechia::okresy("low") %>% # Czech LAU1 regions as sf data frame
  mutate(oddeven = ifelse(nchar(NAZ_LAU1) %% 2 == 1, "odd", "even" )) %>% # odd or even?
  RCzechia::union_sf("oddeven") # ... et facta est lux

# Structure of the "poly" object:
head(poly)
## Simple feature collection with 2 features and 1 field
## geometry type:  MULTIPOLYGON
## dimension:      XY
## bbox:           xmin: 12.0977 ymin: 48.55481 xmax: 18.85927 ymax: 51.05578
## geographic CRS: WGS 84
##   oddeven                       geometry
## 1     odd MULTIPOLYGON (((14.73059 50...
## 2    even MULTIPOLYGON (((16.75781 49...

# report results
ggplot(data = poly, aes(fill = oddeven)) +
  geom_sf() +
  scale_fill_viridis_d() +
  labs(title = "Number of characters in names of Czech districts",
       fill = "Odd or even?") +
  theme_bw()

KFME Grid Cells

The Kartierung der Flora Mitteleuropas (KFME) grid is a commonly used technique in biogeography of the Central Europe. It uses a grid of 10×6 arc-minutes (in Central European latitudes this translates to near squares), with cells numbered from north to south and west to east.

A selection of the grid cells relevant for faunistical mapping of the Czech Republic is available in the RCzechia package.

This example covers a frequent use case:

library(RCzechia)
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
library(sf)

obec <- "Humpolec" # a Czech location, as a string

# geolocate centroid of a place
place <- RCzechia::geocode(obec) %>% 
  filter(typ == "Obec") 

class(place) # a spatial data frame
## [1] "sf"         "data.frame"

# ID of the KFME square containg place geocoded (via spatial join)
ctverec_id <- sf::st_join(RCzechia::KFME_grid(), 
                          place, left = F)$ctverec

print(paste0("Location found in grid cell number ", ctverec_id, "."))
## [1] "Location found in grid cell number 6458."

# a single KFME square to be highlighted as a polygon
highlighted_cell <- KFME_grid() %>% 
  filter(ctverec == ctverec_id) 

# report results
ggplot() +
  geom_sf(data = RCzechia::republika(), size = .85) + # Czech borders
  geom_sf(data = highlighted_cell, # a specific KFME cell ...
          fill = "limegreen", alpha = .5) +  # ... highlighted in lime green
  geom_sf(data = KFME_grid(), size = .33, # all KFME grid cells, thin
          color = "gray80", fill = NA) + # in gray and without fill
  geom_sf(data = place,  color = "red", pch = 4) +  # X marks the spot!
  ggtitle(paste("Location", obec, "in grid cell number", ctverec_id)) +
  theme_bw()

Terrain of the Czech Republic

Understanding the lay of the land is important in many use cases in physical sciences; one of them is interpreting the flow of rivers.

Visualizing the slope & height of terrain is an important first step in understanding it.

Package RCzechia supports two versions of relief visualization:

This example covers the second option.

library(RCzechia)
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
library(raster)

# ggplot does not play nice with {raster} package; a data frame is required
relief <- vyskopis("rayshaded") %>% 
  as("SpatialPixelsDataFrame") %>% # old style format - {sp}
  as_tibble()

# report results
ggplot() +
  geom_raster(data = relief, aes(x = x, y  = y, alpha = -raytraced), # relief
              fill = "gray30",  show.legend = F) + # no legend is necessary
  geom_sf(data = subset(RCzechia::reky(), Major == T), # major rivers
          color = "steelblue", alpha = .7) +
  labs(title = "Czech Rivers & Their Basins") +
  theme_bw() +
  theme(axis.title = element_blank())