aRT: R-TerraLib API

aRT is an R package that provides the integration between the statistical software R and the GIS library TerraLib. The aim is to have a package for accessing geospatial data to be analysed within R. R is a freely-available open source language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. To learn more about R go to R project web page. TerraLib is an open source GIS classes and functions library, available from the Internet as a collaborative environment for the development of GIS tools. Further information can be found at TerraLib project web page.

aRT has dependencies as detailed in the aRT dependencies section.

• install-aRT-dep is an apt-based script (Debian, Ubuntu, and friends) to facilitate installing aRT dependencies (see FAQ for details).
• Install as usual for R packages:

  > install.packages("aRT", contrib="http://leg.ufpr.br/aRT")

Binaries for some Linux distros are also available.

• Make sure you have the aRT dependencies installed.
• Install as usual for R packages:

  > install.packages("aRT", contrib="http://leg.ufpr.br/aRT/windows")

Alternativelly, download aRT_2.0-0.zip and use 'Install package(s) from local zip files' from the 'Packages' menu.

There are some dependencies for installing aRT. Following there is a link to their pages and versions. Other versions may not run correctly.

• MySQL version 14.12 Distrib 5.0.32 or greater. MySQL is an open source DBMS. apt: mysql-server-5.0 and libmysqlclient15-dev
• Qt version 3.3.3. Qt is a multiplataform toolkit in C++ for the development of graphic interfaces, implemented by Trolltech. apt: libqt3-mt-dev
• JPEG. A library for working with jpeg image format. apt: libjpeg62-dev
• sp version at least 0.9-26. sp is an R package with S4 classes and methods for spatial data.
• TerraLib version 3.2. TerraLib is a library of classes for GIS. It is available under cvs:

cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.dpi.inpe.br:/home/terralib login
cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.dpi.inpe.br:/home/terralib co -r v-3-2-0 src
cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.dpi.inpe.br:/home/terralib co -r v-3-2-0 terralibx

There is a Makefile in terralibx/terralib. You can download TerraView too:

cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.dpi.inpe.br:/home/terralib co -r v-3-2-0 terraView

The Makefile is in terraView/linux/. TerraLib directory need to be registered in LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Put the following lines in your .bashrc:

TERRALIBDIR=/usr/local/terralib
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$TERRALIBDIR/terralibx/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Usually TerraLib is installed in /usr/local. If TerraLib is located in another directory, you can set it when calling R CMD:

R CMD INSTALL --configure-args=--with-terralib=/terralib/dir aRT

• MySQL version 14.12 Distrib 5.0.67 or greater. MySQL is an open source DBMS.
• sp version at least 0.9-26. sp is an R package with S4 classes and methods for spatial data.

The following two figures are one example of R data (from geoR package) that can be exported to a TerraLib database, and then it can be visualized with TerraView.

One of the main objectives of aRT is to do spatial queries and operations in R. For example, in the following figure we have a spatial data from a TerraLib database of Recife city, in Brazil. In the top left figure we have the map of Recife and its districts, with some points, and the bottom left figure shows the sewerage. The other two result from spatial queries. The top right answers "Which districts contains the points (yellow) and which ones are their neighbours (green)?" and the bottom right answers "Which sewers are inside (red) or touches (green) the districts that contain the points?"

Another example is shown below. In the left figure there are two cities and their neighbours of first and second order. The right side shows all the neighbours that are completely within a buffer given a distance from the polygons, and the ones that has some overlap with this buffer.

• aRT Manual (pdf)
• Introduction (html, pdf)
• Database connections (html, pdf)
• sp data (html, pdf)
• Tables and Queries (html, pdf)

• aRT: R-TerraLib API. P. R. Andrade, P. J. Ribeiro Junior. useR! 2006 (presentation, and a photo!)
• Integration of Statistics and Geographic Information Systems: the R/TerraLib Case. P. R. Andrade, P. J. Ribeiro Junior, K. Fook. GeoInfo 2005 (paper, presentation)
• A Process and Environment for Embedding The R Software into TerraLib. P. R. Andrade, P. J. Ribeiro Junior. GeoInfo 2005 (paper, presentation)

• Creating cells and filling attributes (script, shapefile data)
• Points inside of polygons (script, MID/MIFF data)
• Union of polygons (script, shapefile data)
• Neighborhood matrix and analysis with spdep (script aRT, script maptools, shapefile data)

• aRT development page
• FAQ
• Old versions (source code)
• Old Windows versions

• Pedro Ribeiro de Andrade - pedro at dpi.inpe.br (maintainer)
• Paulo Justiniano Ribeiro Junior - paulojus at ufpr.br
• Eduardo Sant'Ana da Silva - eduardo.santanadasilva at gmail.com

Collaborators in earlier versions:

• Marcos Aurélio Carrro
• Eduardo Sant'Ana da Silva
• Adriana Zanella Martinhago
• Thiago Eugênio Bezerra de Melo
• Elias Teixeira Krainski
• Karla Donato Fook

This project is partially supported by Fapesp, proccess number 04/11012-0, FPLF proccess 2005.05.066, and CNPq 552044/2002-4.