Running R version 2.6.1 under Gentoo Linux, I'm trying to produce a
thematic map of the USA using the gmaps package. The result thus far
has two problems from my point of view.
First, the projection (Miller cylindrical?) elongates southern states
and flattens northern ones unattractively. I'd prefer Albers conic
projection or something similar.
Second, the inset for Alaska is placed south of the contiguous states.
I'd prefer to put it north of them.
I would be very grateful to anyone who could suggest (a) how to change
the projection and/or (b) relocate the inset.
The most relevant section of my R code is pasted below. If needed, I can
supply the entire program and data.
-John
*****************Code starts here*************************
library(gmaps)
grid.newpage()
grid.frame(name="map")
statenames <- list("Alabama", "Alaska",
"Arizona", "Arkansas",
"California", "Colorado",
"Connecticut",
"Florida", "Georgia", "Hawaii",
"Idaho",
"Illinois", "Indiana", "Iowa",
"Kansas",
"Kentucky", "Louisiana", "Maine",
"Maryland",
"Massachusetts", "Michigan",
"Minnesota", "Mississippi",
"Missouri", "Montana", "Nebraska",
"Nevada",
"New Hampshire", "New Jersey", "New
Mexico", "New York",
"North Carolina", "North Dakota",
"Ohio", "Oklahoma",
"Oregon", "Pennsylvania", "Rhode
Island", "South Carolina",
"South Dakota", "Tennessee",
"Texas", "Utah",
"Vermont", "Virginia", "Washington",
"West Virginia",
"Wisconsin", "Wyoming", "Delaware")
# Delaware is last
because it has a missing value and should not be shaded on map.
grid.pack("map",USALevelPlot(states=statenames,levels=spc,col.fun=greens,normalize=T),height=unit(1,'null'))
*****************Code ends here***************************
--
John P. Burkett
Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
and Department of Economics
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI 02881-0808
USA
phone (401) 874-9195
