[R] intersecting polygons and conversion from decimal degree to km

[White.Denis@epamail.epa.gov]

> 1. How can I compute the intersecting area between 2 polygons ?

The general case (with interior exclusions and/or concave borders) is a
little work.  I don't know whether there are any solutions in R, but
many GIS have this feature.

> 2. I have polygons with coordinates in decimal degrees (i.e. 13
> deg 30 min = 13.5 decimal degrees). I want to compute their area
> and get the results in square meters or square kiometers. Can
> anyone give me a conversion coefficient or a pointer where I can
> find this information (sorry for this off topic question) ?

Here is a very simple map projection that you could use.  It ignores the
slightly non-spherical shape of the earth, and is neither equal-area nor
conformal.  After converting your geographic coordinates to kilometers
with this function, you can use function "areapl" in package "splancs"
to calculate the area.

marinus <- function (lat, lon) {
    # Arguments are vectors of latitude and longitude,
    # that is, geographic coordinates in decimal degrees.
    # Projection center defined as midpoint in lat-lon space.
    # Returns a two column matrix with column names "x" and "y",
    # in units of kilometers.  This is the equidistant cylindric
    # map projection, here named after Marinus of Tyre
    # (see JP Snyder. USGS Prof Paper 1395, p 90).
    R <- 6371
    rlat <- range (lat, na.rm=TRUE)
    rlon <- range (lon, na.rm=TRUE)
    midlat <- diff (rlat) / 2 + rlat[1]
    midlon <- diff (rlon) / 2 + rlon[1]
    x <- R * (lon-midlon)*pi/180 * cos (midlat*pi/180)
    y <- R * (lat-midlat)*pi/180
    xy <- cbind (x=x, y=y)
    xy
}

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