Create shaded polygons around points with ggplot2 - r

Question

I saw yesterday this beautiful map of McDonalds restaurants in USA. I wanted to replicate it for France (I found some data that can be downloaded here).
I have no problem plotting the dots:
library(readxl)
library(ggplot2)
library(raster)
#open data
mac_do_FR <- read_excel("./mcdo_france.xlsx")
mac_do_FR_df <- as.data.frame(mac_do_FR)
#get a map of France
mapaFR <- getData("GADM", country="France", level=0)
#plot dots on the map
ggplot() +
geom_polygon(data = mapaFR, aes(x = long, y = lat, group = group),
fill = "transparent", size = 0.1, color="black") +
geom_point(data = mac_do_FR_df, aes(x = lon, y = lat),
colour = "orange", size = 1)
I tried several methods (Thiessen polygons, heat maps, buffers), but the results I get are very poor. I can't figure out how the shaded polygons were plotted on the American map. Any pointers?

Answer 1

Here's my result, but it did take some manual data wrangling.
Step 1: Get geospatial data.
library(sp)
# generate a map of France, along with a fortified dataframe version for ease of
# referencing lat / long ranges
mapaFR <- raster::getData("GADM", country="France", level=0)
map.FR <- fortify(mapaFR)
# generate a spatial point version of the same map, defining your own grid size
# (a smaller size yields a higher resolution heatmap in the final product, but will
# take longer to calculate)
grid.size = 0.01
points.FR <- expand.grid(
x = seq(min(map.FR$long), max(map.FR$long), by = grid.size),
y = seq(min(map.FR$lat), max(map.FR$lat), by = grid.size)
)
points.FR <- SpatialPoints(coords = points.FR, proj4string = mapaFR#proj4string)
Step 2: Generate a voronoi diagram based on store locations, & obtain the corresponding polygons as a SpatialPolygonsDataFrame object.
library(deldir)
library(dplyr)
voronoi.tiles <- deldir(mac_do_FR_df$lon, mac_do_FR_df$lat,
rw = c(min(map.FR$long), max(map.FR$long),
min(map.FR$lat), max(map.FR$lat)))
voronoi.tiles <- tile.list(voronoi.tiles)
voronoi.center <- lapply(voronoi.tiles,
function(l) data.frame(x.center = l$pt[1],
y.center = l$pt[2],
ptNum = l$ptNum)) %>%
data.table::rbindlist()
voronoi.polygons <- lapply(voronoi.tiles,
function(l) Polygon(coords = matrix(c(l$x, l$y),
ncol = 2),
hole = FALSE) %>%
list() %>%
Polygons(ID = l$ptNum)) %>%
SpatialPolygons(proj4string = mapaFR#proj4string) %>%
SpatialPolygonsDataFrame(data = voronoi.center,
match.ID = "ptNum")
rm(voronoi.tiles, voronoi.center)
Step 3. Check which voronoi polygon each point on the map overlaps with, & calculate its distance to the corresponding nearest store.
which.voronoi <- over(points.FR, voronoi.polygons)
points.FR <- cbind(as.data.frame(points.FR), which.voronoi)
rm(which.voronoi)
points.FR <- points.FR %>%
rowwise() %>%
mutate(dist = geosphere::distm(x = c(x, y), y = c(x.center, y.center))) %>%
ungroup() %>%
mutate(dist = ifelse(is.na(dist), max(dist, na.rm = TRUE), dist)) %>%
mutate(dist = dist / 1000) # convert from m to km for easier reading
Step 4. Plot, adjusting the fill gradient parameters as needed. I felt the result of a square root transformation looks quite good for emphasizing distances close to a store, while a log transformation is rather too exaggerated, but your mileage may vary.
ggplot() +
geom_raster(data = points.FR %>%
mutate(dist = pmin(dist, 100)),
aes(x = x, y = y, fill = dist)) +
# optional. shows outline of France for reference
geom_polygon(data = map.FR,
aes(x = long, y = lat, group = group),
fill = NA, colour = "white") +
# define colour range, mid point, & transformation (if desired) for fill
scale_fill_gradient2(low = "yellow", mid = "red", high = "black",
midpoint = 4, trans = "sqrt") +
labs(x = "longitude",
y = "latitude",
fill = "Distance in km") +
coord_quickmap()