making a choropleth in R: merging zip code shapefiles from multiple states

Question

Motivated by the post here, Developing Geographic Thematic Maps with R, I was thinking about constructing a choropleth map based on zip codes. I've downloaded the shape files for New Hampshire and Maine from http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/z52000.html, but I'm interested in combining or merging the .shp files from these two states.

Is there a mechanism in the maptools package for doing this kind of merge or concatenation of two .shp files after you read them in using readShapeSpatial()? Also welcome input if e.g. using the RgoogleMaps package would be easier.

Answer 1

I followed up on the link posted by Roman Luštrik, and the following answer is a slight modification of http://r-sig-geo.2731867.n2.nabble.com/suggestion-to-MERGE-or-UNION-3-shapefiles-td5914413.html#a5916751.

The following code will allow you to merge the .shp files obtained from Census 2000 5-Digit ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) Cartographic Boundary Files and plot them.

In this case, I downloaded the .shp files and associated .dbf and .shx files for Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.

library('maptools')
library('rgdal')

setwd('c:/location.of.shp.files')

# this location has the shapefiles for zt23_d00 (Maine), zt25_d00 (Mass.), and zt33_d00 (New Hampshire).

# columns.to.keep
# allows the subsequent spRbind to work properly

columns.to.keep <- c('AREA', 'PERIMETER', 'ZCTA', 'NAME', 'LSAD', 'LSAD_TRANS')

files <- list.files(pattern="*.shp$", recursive=TRUE, full.names=TRUE) 

uid <-1 

# get polygons from first file

poly.data<- readOGR(files[1], gsub("^.*/(.*).shp$", "\\1", files[1])) 
n <- length(slot(poly.data, "polygons"))
poly.data <- spChFIDs(poly.data, as.character(uid:(uid+n-1))) 
uid <- uid + n 
poly.data <- poly.data[columns.to.keep]

# combine remaining polygons with first polygon

for (i in 2:length(files)) {
    temp.data <- readOGR(files[i], gsub("^.*/(.*).shp$", "\\1",files[i]))
    n <- length(slot(temp.data, "polygons")) 
    temp.data <- spChFIDs(temp.data, as.character(uid:(uid+n-1))) 
    temp.data <- temp.data[columns.to.keep]
    uid <- uid + n 
    poly.data <- spRbind(poly.data,temp.data) 
}

plot(poly.data)

# save new shapefile

combined.shp <- 'combined.shp'
writeOGR(poly.data, dsn=combined.shp, layer='combined1', driver='ESRI Shapefile')