[R] spatial clusters

Georg Ruß
Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:19:20 -0000

On 10/12/10 23:26:28, dorina.lazar wrote:
> I am looking for a clustering method usefull to classify the countries in
> some clusters taking account of: a) the geographical distance (in km)
> between countries  and b) of some macroeconomic indicators (gdp, life
> expectancy...).

Hi Dorina,

before choosing R packages useful for this task, the task itself must be
clarified. What does the data you're working with look like? I'm asking
because it looks as if you're trying to mix spatial (spatial distances)
and non-spatial information in a clustering algorithm. I've done a lot of
research in this area because I needed something similar (combining
spatial and non-spatial information) and the existing approaches weren't
really useful in my case because I had equidistant spatial points with
equal spatial density (management zone delineation in precision
agriculture).

There are a few algorithms which may be suitable for your work, maybe
check out the references below (you should find those using only the
title, otherwise please let me know):

MOSAIC: A Proximity Graph Approach for Agglomerative Clustering
ICEAGE: Interactive Clustering and Exploration of Large and
High-Dimensional Geodata
Efficient regionalization techniques for socio-economic geographical units
using minimum spanning trees (SKATER)

I haven't seen too many R implementations yet, though.

You may also try the R-sig-geo mailing list, because your data look geo
:-) https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-geo

Regards,
Georg.
--
Research Assistant
Otto-von-Guericke-Universit?t Magdeburg
research at georgruss.de