Simple features are a standardized way of encoding spatial vector data (points, lines, polygons) in computers. The sf package implements simple features in R, and has roughly the same capacity for spatial vector data as packages sp, rgeos, and rgdal. We describe the need for this package, its place in the R package ecosystem, and its potential to connect R to other computer systems. We illustrate this with examples of its use.
Supplementary materials are available in addition to this article. It can be downloaded at RJ-2018-009.zip
sf, sp, rgdal, rgeos, tidyverse, dplyr, ggplot2, lwgeom, geosphere, s2, raster, Rcpp
Spatial, SpatioTemporal, Graphics, HighPerformanceComputing, ModelDeployment, NumericalMathematics, Phylogenetics
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For attribution, please cite this work as
Pebesma, "The R Journal: Simple Features for R: Standardized Support for Spatial Vector Data", The R Journal, 2018
BibTeX citation
@article{RJ-2018-009,
author = {Pebesma, Edzer},
title = {The R Journal: Simple Features for R: Standardized Support for Spatial Vector Data},
journal = {The R Journal},
year = {2018},
note = {https://doi.org/10.32614/RJ-2018-009},
doi = {10.32614/RJ-2018-009},
volume = {10},
issue = {1},
issn = {2073-4859},
pages = {439-446}
}