# Point pattern analysis in R

Most point pattern analysis tools are available in the spatstat package. These tools are designed to work with points stored as ppp objects and not SpatialPointsDataFrame objects. A ppp may or may not have attribute information (also referred to as marks). Knowing whether or not a function requires that an attributes table be present in the ppp object matters if a the operation is to complete successfully.

In the following chunk of code, a point feature of Starbucks stores in Massachusetts is downloaded from the website as a SpatialPointsDataFrame then converted to a ppp object. Converting a SpatialPointsDataFrame to a ppp requires the use of the maptools package. Note the intermediate step that strips the point object of a dataframe (attributes table) before being converted to a mark free ppp object.

library(maptools)

z <- gzcon(url("http://colby.edu/~mgimond/Spatial/Data/starbucks.rds"))
SP <- as(S1, "SpatialPoints")
p2  <- as(SP, "ppp")

We will also load a polygon outline of the state of Massachusetts. It will be used to define the extent of the study area (this is needed for hypothesis testing later in this tutorial). It too must be converted to a spatstat readable format. We’ll convert it to an owin object.

z <- gzcon(url("http://colby.edu/~mgimond/Spatial/Data/ma.rds"))
W  <- as(S2, "owin")

Some spatstat applications make use of rasters which must be stored as an im object. The following chunk of code downloads a raster of Massachusetts population density.

library(spatstat)  # Needed for function as.im()

z <- gzcon(url("http://colby.edu/~mgimond/Spatial/Data/pop_sqmile.rds"))
pop <- as.im(r)  # Convert r object to an im object

The above datasets will be used later in this tutorial.

Note that im objects created by spatstat can be converted to a raster object using the raster() function from the raster package. This can be helpful if you wish to use a mapping application such as tmap to map the rasters instead of the base plotting function.

## Density based analysis

You can compute the quadrat count and intensity using spatstat’s quadratcount() and intensity() functions. We’ll use a built-in dataset for this example.

library(spatstat)
P <- bei
Q <- quadratcount(P, nx= 6, ny=3)

The object Q stores the number of points inside each quadrat. You can plot the quadrats along with the counts as follows:

plot(P, pch=20, cols="grey70", main=NULL)
plot(Q, add=TRUE)

You can compute the density of points within each quadrat as follows:

# Compute the density for each quadrat
Q.d <- intensity(Q)

# Plot the density
plot( intensity(Q, image=TRUE), main=NULL)
plot(P, pch=20, cex=0.6, col=rgb(0,0,0,.2), add=TRUE)

### Quadrat density on a tesselated surface

We’ll work off of an internal dataset.

library(spatstat)
P    <- bei              # Use built-in point dataset
elev <- bei.extra$elev # Use built-in covariate Next, we’ll divide the covariate into regions (aka tesselated surfaces). brk <- c( 110, 135, 145, 155 , 160) Zcut <- cut(elev, breaks=brk, labels=1:4) E <- tess(image=Zcut) Next, compute the quadrat counts within each tesselated area then compute the density. Q <- quadratcount(P, tess = E) Q.d <- intensity(Q) Q.d tile 1 2 3 4 0.003219228 0.007573599 0.009870740 0.001859664  Plot the density values across each tesselated region. plot( intensity(Q, image=TRUE), main=NULL) plot(P, pch=20, cex=0.6, col=rgb(0,0,0,.2), add=TRUE) Let’s modify the color scheme. cl <- interp.colours(c("lightyellow", "orange" ,"red"), E$n)
plot( intensity(Q, image=TRUE), col=cl, main=NULL)
plot(P, pch=20, cex=0.6, col=rgb(0,0,0,.2), add=TRUE)

### Kernel density raster

The spatstat package has a function called density which implements a gaussian kernel function. Its bandwidth defines the kernel’s window extent.

library(spatstat)
P <- bei

# Using the default bandwidth
K1 <- density(P)
plot(K1, main=NULL)
contour(K1, add=TRUE)

# Using a custom (smaller) bandwidth of 40 map units
K2 <- density(P, sigma=40)
plot(K2, main=NULL)
contour(K2, add=TRUE)

# Using a custom (larger) bandwidth of 50 map units
K3 <- density(P, sigma=500)
plot(K3, main=NULL)
contour(K3, add=TRUE)

### Kernel Density Adjusted for Covariate

In the following example, a kernel density map is generated using an elevation raster as a covariate. The outputs include a plot of $$\rho$$ vs. elevation and a raster map of $$\rho$$.

library(spatstat)
P    <- bei              # Use built-in point dataset
elev <- bei.extra$elev # Use built-in covariate # Compute rho using the ratio method rho <- rhohat(P, elev, method="ratio") # Generate rho vs covariate plot plot(rho, main=NULL) # Generate map of rho pred <- predict(rho) cl <- interp.colours(c("lightyellow", "orange" ,"red"), 100) # Create color scheme plot(pred, col=cl, las=2, main=NULL) ### Modeling intensity as a function of a covariate In this example, we make use of the Starbucks and population density datasets loaded at the beginning of this tutorial. First, we’ll map the data. The population density raster is mapped on a log scale. library(tmap) tm_shape(r) + tm_raster(style="quantile", palette = "Greys") + tm_shape(S1) + tm_bubbles(col="red", alpha=0.5, border.col = "yellow", border.lwd = 0.5) + tm_legend(outside = TRUE, text.size = .8)  Next, we’ll generate the Poisson point process model and plot the results. Note that we are using the ppp representation of the Starbucks points (object p2) and not the SpatialPointsDataFrame representation (object S1). library(spatstat) # Create the Poisson point process model PPM1 <- ppm(p2 ~ pop) # Plot the relationship plot(effectfun(PPM1, "pop", se.fit=TRUE), main=NULL, cex.axis=0.6,cex.lab=0.6, legend=FALSE) ## Distance based analysis ### Average nearest neighbor analysis library(spatstat) P <- bei To compute the average first nearest neighbor distance (1st order): mean(nndist(P, k=1)) [1] 4.329677 To compute the average second nearest neighbor distance (2nd order): mean(nndist(P, k=2)) [1] 6.473149 To plot average distance as a function of neighbor order for the first 100 closest neighbors: ANN <- apply(nndist(P, k=1:100),2,FUN=mean) plot(ANN ~ eval(1:100), type="b", main=NULL ) The bottom axis shows the neighbor order number and the left axis shows the average distance. ### K and L functions library(spatstat) P <- bei To compute the K function: K <- Kest(P) plot(K, main=NULL) To compute the L function: L <- Lest(P, main=NULL) plot(L) To plot the L function with the Lexpected line set horizontal: plot(L, . -r ~ r) ### The Pair Correlation Function g library(spatstat) P <- swedishpines To compute the pair correlation function. g <- pcf(P) plot(g, main=NULL) ## Hypothesis tests ### Test for clustering First, we’ll compute the ANN for Walmart locations assuming uniform density across the state (i.e. assuming that there are no underlying factors at play). Compute the observed data’s ANN value, library(spatstat) ann.p <- mean(nndist(p2, k=1)) Now run the MC simulation using a homogeneous point pattern density process n <- 599 # This tells the model how many times to run the simulation ann.r <- vector() # Create an empty object to be used to store simulated values for (i in 1:n){ rand.p <- rpoint(n=p2$n, win=W)  # Generate the random point locations
ann.r[i] <- mean(nndist(rand.p, k=1)) # Tally the ANN values
}

In the above loop, the function rpoint is passed two parameters: n=p2k$n and win=W. The first tells the function how many points to randomly generate (p2$n extracts the number of points in object p2). The second tells the function to confine the points to the extent defined by w (the state of MA boundary).

Next, let’s plot the histogram and add a blue line showing where our observed ANN value lies.

hist(ann.r, breaks=40, col="bisque", xlim=range(ann.p, ann.r))
abline(v=ann.p, col="blue")

It’s obvious from the test that the observed ANN is far smaller than the expected ANN values under the null hypothesis that the stores are randomly distributed across the state. A smaller value indicates that the stores are far more clustered than expected under the null.

Next, we’ll run the same test but add the influence due to population distribution. This is a non-homogeneous test.

n     <- 599
ann.r <- vector()
for (i in 1:n){
rand.p   <- rpoint(n=p2\$n, f=pop)
ann.r[i] <- mean(nndist(rand.p, k=1))
}

Here, we pass the parameter f=pop to the function rpoint telling it that the population density raster pop should be used to define where a point should be most likely placed (high population density) and least likely placed (low population density).

Next, let’s plot the histogram and add a blue line showing where our observed ANN value lies.

hist(ann.r, breaks=40, col="bisque", xlim=range(ann.p, ann.r))
abline(v=ann.p, col="blue")

Population density alone cannot explain the clustering given that the observed ANN value is less than the expected ANN values.

### Computing a pseudo p-value

We’ll work off of the last simulation. First, we need to find the number of simulated ANN values greater than our observed ANN value

N.greater <- sum(ann.r > ann.p)

To compute the p-value, find the end of the distribution closest to the observed ANN value, then divide that count by the total count. Note that this is a so-called one-sided P-value. See lecture notes for more information.

p <- min(N.greater + 1, n + 1 - N.greater) / (n +1)
p
[1] 0.001666667

In our working example, you’ll note that or simulated ANN value was nowhere near the range of ANN values computed under the null yet we don’t have a p-value of zero. This is by design since the strength of our estimated p will be proportional to the number of simulations–there is always a chance that one realization of a point pattern could produce an ANN value more extreme than ours.

### Testing for a covariate effect

It’s important that the p2 object have its extent defined so as to match the extent of the population raster pop. Plotting p2 with the base plot function shows that the extent is currently defined by the smallest rectangle enclosing the points.

plot(p2, main=NULL)

We can impose the Massachusetts boundary as the new extent as follows:

Window(p2) <- W
plot(p2, main=NULL)

Now, we’ll fit the model that assumes that point density is a function of population (the alternative hypothesis).

library(spatstat)
PPM1 <- ppm(p2 ~ pop)
PPM1
Nonstationary Poisson process

Fitted trend coefficients:
(Intercept)           pop
-1.905198e+01  1.836711e-04

Estimate         S.E.       CI95.lo       CI95.hi Ztest
(Intercept) -1.905198e+01 9.039783e-02 -1.922915e+01 -1.887480e+01   ***
pop          1.836711e-04 6.060545e-06  1.717927e-04  1.955496e-04   ***
Zval
(Intercept) -210.75700
pop           30.30604
Problem:
Values of the covariate 'pop' were NA or undefined at 0.57% (4 out of
699) of the quadrature points

Next, we’ll fit the model that assumes that density is not a function of population (the null hypothesis).

PPM0 <- ppm(p2 ~ 1)
PPM0
Stationary Poisson process
Intensity: 8.268627e-09
Estimate       S.E.   CI95.lo   CI95.hi Ztest      Zval
log(lambda) -18.6108 0.07647191 -18.76068 -18.46092   *** -243.3678

In our working example, the null model (homogeneous intensity) takes on the form:

$\lambda(i) = e^{-18.6}$

The alternate model takes on the form:

$\lambda(i) = e^{-19.1 + 1.8^{-4}population}$

The models are then compared using the likelihood ratio test which produces the following output:

anova(PPM0, PPM1, test="LRT")
Npar Df Deviance Pr(>Chi)
5 NA NA NA
6 1 347.4234 0

The value under the heading PR(>Chi) is the p-value which gives us the probability we would be wrong in rejecting the null. Here p~0 suggesting that there is close to a 0% chance that we would be remiss to reject the base model in favor of the alternate model–put another way, the alternate model (that population density can help explain the distribution of Starbucks) is a significant improvement over the null.