216 – Geovisualization
R, Lattice, and RgoogleMaps: A Practical Framework for the Development of New Geovisualizations
David C. Carslaw
King's College London
Haibo Chen
University of Leeds
Said Munir
University of Leeds
Karl Ropkins
University of Leeds
The R package lattice provides an elegant and highly powerful implementation of the Trellis plotting structure described by Cleveland and colleagues. Therefore, the combination of another R package RgoogleMaps and lattice is an obvious starting point for the development of map based data visualization and analysis tools. While ‘stand alone’ plot functions developed using this combination are of obvious value, the code framework, which allows simple-to-use and flexible means of merging Google Maps and multiple lattice plot panels, is of possibly wider interest because it provides a highly practical template for the rapid third-party development of novel geovisualization functions. To support this approach, this paper presents results from on-going work to integrate lattice and RgoogleMaps. Firstly, the basic lattice style code is used to demonstrate panel layering and plot development methods, and their use to quickly generate a wide range of geovisualizations. Then, a ‘higher level’ version of the code, the GoogleMapsPlot function in the R package openair, is used as an example to illustrate its incorporation and use in ‘third party’ code.
