Simple Features for R: Standardized Support for Spatial Vector Data

Authors

Edzer Pebesma, Heißenbergstraße 2

Date of this Version

7-2018

Document Type

Article

Citation

The R Journal (July 2018) 10(1); Editor: John Verzani

Comments

Copyright 2018, The R Foundation. Open access material. License: CC BY 4.0 International

Abstract

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.