Choropleth map in ggplot with polygons that have holes

Question

I\'m trying to draw a choropleth map of Germany showing poverty rate by state (inspired by this question).

The problem is that some of the states (Berlin, for examp

Answer 1

Alternatively you could create that map using rworldmap.

library(rworldmap)
library(RColorBrewer)
library(rgdal)

map <- readOGR(dsn=".", layer="germany3")
pov <- read.csv("gerpoverty.csv")

#join data to the map
sPDF <- joinData2Map(pov,nameMap='map',nameJoinIDMap='VARNAME_1',nameJoinColumnData='Id1')

#default map
#mapPolys(sPDF,nameColumnToPlot='poverty')

colours=brewer.pal(5,"OrRd")
mapParams <- mapPolys( sPDF
                      ,nameColumnToPlot='poverty'
                      ,catMethod="pretty"
                      ,numCats=5
                      ,colourPalette=colours
                      ,addLegend=FALSE )


do.call( addMapLegend, c( mapParams
                          , legendLabels="all"
                          , legendWidth=0.5
                        ))

#to test state names
#text(pov$x,pov$y,labels=pov$Id1)

Answer 2

This is just an expansion on @Ista's answer, which does not require that one knows which states (Berlin, Bremen) need to be rendered last.

This approach takes advantage of the fact that fortify(...) generates a column, hole which identifies whether a group of coordinates are a hole. So this renders all regions (id's) with any holes before (e.g. underneath) the regions without holes.

Many thanks to @Ista, without whose answer I could not have come up with this (believe me, I spent many hours trying...)

ggplot(map.df, aes(x=long, y=lat, group=group)) +
  geom_polygon(data=map.df[map.df$id %in% map.df[map.df$hole,]$id,],aes(fill=poverty))+
  geom_polygon(data=map.df[!map.df$id %in% map.df[map.df$hole,]$id,],aes(fill=poverty))+
  geom_path(colour="grey50")+
  scale_fill_gradientn(colours=brewer.pal(5,"OrRd"))+
  labs(x="",y="")+ theme_bw()+
  coord_fixed()

Answer 3

You can plot the island polygons in a separate layer, following the example on the ggplot2 wiki. I've modified your merging steps to make this easier:

mrg.df <- data.frame(id=rownames(map@data),ID_1=map@data$ID_1)
mrg.df <- merge(mrg.df,pov, by="ID_1")
map.df <- fortify(map)
map.df <- merge(map.df,mrg.df, by="id")

ggplot(map.df, aes(x=long, y=lat, group=group)) +
    geom_polygon(aes(fill=poverty), color = "grey50", data =subset(map.df, !Id1 %in% c("Berlin", "Bremen")))+
    geom_polygon(aes(fill=poverty), color = "grey50", data =subset(map.df, Id1 %in%  c("Berlin", "Bremen")))+
    scale_fill_gradientn(colours=brewer.pal(5,"OrRd"))+
    labs(x="",y="")+ theme_bw()+
    coord_fixed()

As an unsolicited act of evangelism, I encourage you to consider something like

library(ggmap)
qmap("germany", zoom = 6) +
    geom_polygon(aes(x=long, y=lat, group=group, fill=poverty),
                 color = "grey50", alpha = .7,
                 data =subset(map.df, !Id1 %in% c("Berlin", "Bremen")))+
    geom_polygon(aes(x=long, y=lat, group=group, fill=poverty),
                 color = "grey50", alpha= .7,
                 data =subset(map.df, Id1 %in%  c("Berlin", "Bremen")))+
    scale_fill_gradientn(colours=brewer.pal(5,"OrRd"))

to provide context and familiar reference points.

Answer 4

Just to add another small improvement to @Ista's and @jhoward's answers (thanks a lot for your help!).

The modification of @jhoward could be easily wrapped in a small function like this

gghole <- function(fort){
        poly <- fort[fort$id %in% fort[fort$hole,]$id,]
        hole <- fort[!fort$id %in% fort[fort$hole,]$id,]
        out <- list(poly,hole)
        names(out) <- c('poly','hole')
        return(out)
} 
# input has to be a fortified data.frame

Then, one doesn't need to recall every time how to extract holes info. The code would look like

    ggplot(map.df, aes(x=long, y=lat, group=group)) +
            geom_polygon(data=gghole(map.df)[[1]],aes(fill=poverty),colour="grey50")+
            geom_polygon(data=gghole(map.df)[[2]],aes(fill=poverty),colour="grey50")+
    # (optionally). Call by name
    #         geom_polygon(data=gghole(map.df)$poly,aes(fill=poverty),colour="grey50")+
    #         geom_polygon(data=gghole(map.df)$hole,aes(fill=poverty),colour="grey50")+
            scale_fill_gradientn(colours=brewer.pal(5,"OrRd"))+
            labs(x="",y="")+ theme_bw()+
            coord_fixed()