Hey folks,
sf
is an rather new R package for handling and analyzing spatial data in R. While various R packages are available that provide classes and methods for spatial data (e.g. sp
, rgdal
and rgeos
), sf
, which is developed by Edzer Pebesma and others, is intended to gradually replace the well known sp
package. The motivation behind this package is to provide a complete, standardized implementation of simple features in R, with links to GDAL, GEOS and Proj.4.
There are already three well-designed and informative vignettes documenting the sf
package:
- Simple Features for R
- Reading, Writing and Converting Simple Features
- Manipulating Simple Feature Geometries
One of the most notable advantages is the gain in performance when reading spatial data (due to using C++ and Rcpp
as well as the efficient WKB representations) and the smaller object sizes for the resulting spatial objects in R.
Together with the C++ port/implementation of the raster
package, these developments show that the masterminds behind the R spatial community have their fingers on the pulse of the time. I am really looking forward to exploring the exciting new possibilities introduced by the sf
-package in greater detail.
Best regards,
Matthias
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