mregions2 offers a streamlined interface to access data from Marine Regions in R for researchers, marine scientists, and geospatial analysts seeking marine geographical information
Marine Regions offers two key resources: the Marine Regions Gazetteer, a list of standardized marine place names with unique identifiers, and the Marine Regions Data Products, including popular features like the world maritime boundaries.
You can find detailed information in the articles online:
- Introduction to mregions2
- Why mregions and mregions2?
- Marine Regions Data Products Ontology
- mregions2 as RDF
Installation
You can install the latest CRAN version with:
install.packages("mregions2")Or install the development version of mregions2 from GitHub with:
# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("ropensci/mregions2", build_vignettes = TRUE)Load the library with:
The function mrp_view() requires two extra packages that are not listed as Imports, hence they are not installed along with mregions2 but you must install yourself:
install.packages("leaflet")
install.packages("leaflet.extras2")Some of the examples below use the pipe operator %>%. Install and load magrittr:
Query the Marine Regions Gazetteer
The Marine Regions Gazetteer is a standard list of marine georeferenced place names.
Gazetteer: a dictionary of geographical names.
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/gazetteer
You can search the Gazetteer in many ways:
Search by free text:
gaz_search("Belgian Part of the North Sea")
#> # A tibble: 1 × 9
#> MRGID gazetteerSource placeType latitude longitude preferredGazetteerName
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <chr>
#> 1 26567 "VLIZ (2020). Inter… Marine R… 51.5 2.70 Belgian part of the N…
#> # ℹ 3 more variables: preferredGazetteerNameLang <chr>, status <chr>,
#> # accepted <int>Search by unique identifier. See ?MRGID:
gaz_search(3293)
#> # A tibble: 1 × 14
#> MRGID gazetteerSource placeType latitude longitude minLatitude minLongitude
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
#> 1 3293 Flanders Marine I… EEZ 51.5 2.72 51.0 2.24
#> # ℹ 7 more variables: maxLatitude <dbl>, maxLongitude <dbl>, precision <dbl>,
#> # preferredGazetteerName <chr>, preferredGazetteerNameLang <chr>,
#> # status <chr>, accepted <int>Search by location:
gaz_search(x = 2.927, y = 51.21551)
#> # A tibble: 55 × 14
#> MRGID gazetteerSource placeType latitude longitude minLatitude minLongitude
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
#> 1 14 (2001). The Time… Nation 50.5 4.48 49.5 2.55
#> 2 14 (2001). The Time… Nation 50.5 4.48 49.5 2.55
#> 3 14 (2001). The Time… Nation 50.5 4.48 49.5 2.55
#> 4 14 (2001). The Time… Nation 50.5 4.48 49.5 2.55
#> 5 14 (2001). The Time… Nation 50.5 4.48 49.5 2.55
#> 6 14 (2001). The Time… Nation 50.5 4.48 49.5 2.55
#> 7 20 SAIL Province… 51.0 3.03 50.7 2.55
#> 8 20 SAIL Province… 51.0 3.03 50.7 2.55
#> 9 20 SAIL Province… 51.0 3.03 50.7 2.55
#> 10 20 SAIL Province… 51.0 3.03 50.7 2.55
#> # ℹ 45 more rows
#> # ℹ 7 more variables: maxLatitude <dbl>, maxLongitude <dbl>,
#> # preferredGazetteerName <chr>, preferredGazetteerNameLang <chr>,
#> # status <chr>, accepted <int>, precision <dbl>Search by place type:
gaz_search_by_type("EEZ")
#> # A tibble: 246 × 14
#> MRGID gazetteerSource placeType latitude longitude minLatitude minLongitude
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
#> 1 3293 Flanders Marine … EEZ 51.5 2.72 51.0 2.24
#> 2 5668 Flanders Marine … EEZ 53.6 4.19 51.3 2.54
#> 3 5669 Flanders Marine … EEZ 54.6 8.40 52.9 3.35
#> 4 5670 Flanders Marine … EEZ 40.9 19.1 39.6 18.3
#> 5 5672 Flanders Marine … EEZ 42.9 29.2 42.0 27.4
#> 6 5673 Flanders Marine … EEZ 43.4 15.6 41.6 13.0
#> 7 5674 Flanders Marine … EEZ 56.2 9.21 54.4 3.25
#> 8 5675 Flanders Marine … EEZ 58.8 23.0 57.6 20.4
#> 9 5676 Flanders Marine … EEZ 61.8 21.9 58.8 19.1
#> 10 5677 Flanders Marine … EEZ 46.1 -1.96 41.2 -9.88
#> # ℹ 236 more rows
#> # ℹ 7 more variables: maxLatitude <dbl>, maxLongitude <dbl>, precision <dbl>,
#> # preferredGazetteerName <chr>, preferredGazetteerNameLang <chr>,
#> # status <chr>, accepted <int>Search by authortative source:
gaz_search_by_source("Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)")
#> # A tibble: 23 × 13
#> MRGID gazetteerSource placeType latitude longitude preferredGazetteerName
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <chr>
#> 1 62642 Seys, J.; Pint, S.… Sampling… 51.3 3.16 SW-Blankenberge-01
#> 2 62643 Seys, J.; Pint, S.… Sampling… 51.2 2.96 SW-Bredene-01
#> 3 62644 Seys, J.; Pint, S.… Sampling… 51.3 3.26 SW-Duinbergen-01
#> 4 62645 Seys, J.; Pint, S.… Sampling… 51.3 3.00 SW-De Haan-Vosseslag-…
#> 5 62646 Seys, J.; Pint, S.… Sampling… 51.3 3.24 SW-Heist-01
#> 6 62647 Seys, J.; Pint, S.… Sampling… 51.1 2.62 SW-Koksijde-01
#> 7 62648 Seys, J.; Pint, S.… Sampling… 51.2 2.81 SW-Middelkerke-01
#> 8 62649 Seys, J.; Pint, S.… Sampling… 51.2 2.71 SW-Nieuwpoort-01
#> 9 62650 Seys, J.; Pint, S.… Sampling… 51.1 2.69 SW-Oostduinkerke-01
#> 10 62651 Seys, J.; Pint, S.… Sampling… 51.2 2.94 SW-Oostende_Oosteroev…
#> # ℹ 13 more rows
#> # ℹ 7 more variables: preferredGazetteerNameLang <chr>, status <chr>,
#> # accepted <int>, minLatitude <dbl>, minLongitude <dbl>, maxLatitude <dbl>,
#> # maxLongitude <dbl>The list of place types and sources are available with gaz_types() and gaz_sources() respectively.
You can add the geometry of the Gazetteer entries with gaz_geometry():
# Get a record and turn into a sf object with geometry
gaz_search(3293) %>% gaz_geometry()
#> Simple feature collection with 1 feature and 14 fields
#> Geometry type: MULTIPOLYGON
#> Dimension: XY
#> Bounding box: xmin: 2.238333 ymin: 51.03976 xmax: 4.402039 ymax: 51.87611
#> Geodetic CRS: WGS 84
#> # A tibble: 1 × 15
#> MRGID gazetteerSource placeType latitude longitude minLatitude minLongitude
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
#> 1 3293 Flanders Marine I… EEZ 51.5 2.72 51.0 2.24
#> # ℹ 8 more variables: maxLatitude <dbl>, maxLongitude <dbl>, precision <dbl>,
#> # preferredGazetteerName <chr>, preferredGazetteerNameLang <chr>,
#> # status <chr>, accepted <int>, the_geom <MULTIPOLYGON [°]>
# Or get only the geometry
gaz_geometry(3293, format = "sfc")
#> Geometry set for 1 feature
#> Geometry type: MULTIPOLYGON
#> Dimension: XY
#> Bounding box: xmin: 2.238333 ymin: 51.03976 xmax: 4.402039 ymax: 51.87611
#> Geodetic CRS: WGS 84
#> MULTIPOLYGON (((4.242049 51.35397, 4.230735 51....The entries of the Marine Regions Gazetteer are organized hierarchically. You can browse this hierarchy up and down with gaz_relations()
# Get all relations
gaz_search(3293) %>% gaz_relations()
#> # A tibble: 37 × 14
#> MRGID gazetteerSource placeType latitude longitude minLatitude minLongitude
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
#> 1 3293 Flanders Marine … EEZ 51.5 2.72 51.0 2.24
#> 2 2419 ASFA thesaurus Sandbank… 51.5 2.58 NA NA
#> 3 2420 ASFA thesaurus Sandbank… 51.5 2.88 NA NA
#> 4 2421 ASFA thesaurus Sandbank… 51.3 2.64 NA NA
#> 5 14 (2001). The Time… Nation 50.5 4.48 49.5 2.55
#> 6 2350 (1953). Limits o… IHO Sea … 56.4 2.74 51.0 -4.45
#> 7 4675 <NA> Sandbank… 51.3 2.98 NA NA
#> 8 2550 ASFA thesaurus Coast 51.2 2.91 51.1 2.54
#> 9 17401 Aphia Wreck 51.4 2.32 NA NA
#> 10 17409 Aphia Wreck 51.1 2.33 NA NA
#> # ℹ 27 more rows
#> # ℹ 7 more variables: maxLatitude <dbl>, maxLongitude <dbl>, precision <dbl>,
#> # preferredGazetteerName <chr>, preferredGazetteerNameLang <chr>,
#> # status <chr>, accepted <int>
# Or get the relations directly
gaz_relations(3293)
#> # A tibble: 37 × 14
#> MRGID gazetteerSource placeType latitude longitude minLatitude minLongitude
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
#> 1 3293 Flanders Marine … EEZ 51.5 2.72 51.0 2.24
#> 2 2419 ASFA thesaurus Sandbank… 51.5 2.58 NA NA
#> 3 2420 ASFA thesaurus Sandbank… 51.5 2.88 NA NA
#> 4 2421 ASFA thesaurus Sandbank… 51.3 2.64 NA NA
#> 5 14 (2001). The Time… Nation 50.5 4.48 49.5 2.55
#> 6 2350 (1953). Limits o… IHO Sea … 56.4 2.74 51.0 -4.45
#> 7 4675 <NA> Sandbank… 51.3 2.98 NA NA
#> 8 2550 ASFA thesaurus Coast 51.2 2.91 51.1 2.54
#> 9 17401 Aphia Wreck 51.4 2.32 NA NA
#> 10 17409 Aphia Wreck 51.1 2.33 NA NA
#> # ℹ 27 more rows
#> # ℹ 7 more variables: maxLatitude <dbl>, maxLongitude <dbl>, precision <dbl>,
#> # preferredGazetteerName <chr>, preferredGazetteerNameLang <chr>,
#> # status <chr>, accepted <int>Marine Regions Data Products
In addition to the Marine Regions Gazetteer, the Marine Regions Team creates and hosts geographical Data Products, being the most popular one the Marine Regions Maritime Boundaries.
An overview of all available products can be consulted with mrp_list
mrp_list
#> # A tibble: 21 × 8
#> title namespace layer license citation doi imis abstract
#> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 Exclusive Economic Zon… MarineRe… eez Creati… "Flande… http… http… "Versio…
#> 2 Maritime Boundaries (v… MarineRe… eez_… Creati… "Flande… http… http… "Versio…
#> 3 Territorial Seas (12 N… MarineRe… eez_… Creati… "Flande… http… http… "Versio…
#> 4 Contiguous Zones (24 N… MarineRe… eez_… Creati… "Flande… http… http… "Versio…
#> 5 Internal Waters (v3, w… MarineRe… eez_… Creati… "Flande… http… http… "Versio…
#> 6 Archipelagic Waters (v… MarineRe… eez_… Creati… "Flande… http… http… "Versio…
#> 7 High Seas (v1, world, … MarineRe… high… Creati… "Flande… http… http… "High S…
#> 8 Extended Continental S… MarineRe… ecs Creati… "Flande… http… http… "This d…
#> 9 Extended Continental S… MarineRe… ecs_… Creati… "Flande… http… http… "This d…
#> 10 IHO Sea Areas (v3) MarineRe… iho Creati… "Flande… http… http… "World …
#> # ℹ 11 more rowsTheir attributes are explained in the Marine Regions Data Products Ontology article, or simply run mrp_ontology
mrp_ontology
#> # A tibble: 374 × 4
#> layer colname type definition
#> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 eez mrgid int Marine Regions Geographic Identifier of the feature.…
#> 2 eez geoname string Name of the feature.
#> 3 eez mrgid_ter1 int Marine Regions Geographic Identifier of the territor…
#> 4 eez pol_type string Basis of creation or legal status of feature. One of…
#> 5 eez mrgid_sov1 int Marine Regions Geographic Identifier of the sovereig…
#> 6 eez territory1 string Specific land area which directly relates to the fea…
#> 7 eez iso_ter1 string ISO 3 code of the territory feature.
#> 8 eez sovereign1 string State that claims jurisdiction over the territory.
#> 9 eez mrgid_ter2 int Marine Regions Geographic Identifier of the territor…
#> 10 eez mrgid_sov2 int Marine Regions Geographic Identifier of the sovereig…
#> # ℹ 364 more rowsYou can visualize the Marine Regions Data Products with mrp_view(). It opens an interactive leaflet::leaflet viewer.
mrp_view("eez")
Or you can download and read the data products into R with mrp_get()
mrp_get("eez")You can specify the download path in the path argument:
mrp_get("eez", path = "path/to/data")Get to know more in the Get Started vignette.
Related packages
Marine biodiversity data
The main purpose of Marine Regions is to serve as the geographical backbone for the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), an authoritative classification and catalogue of marine names. Here is a list of R packages to access Marine taxonomical and biogeographic data that can be combined with data from mregions2:
More geographical data
There are other R packages that allow to access other gazetteers and boundaries data. Here is a non-exhaustive list:
- geonames: Interface to the “Geonames” Spatial Query Web Service.
- osmdata: Import ‘OpenStreetMap’ Data as Simple Features or Spatial Objects.
- osmextract: Download and Import Open Street Map Data Extracts.
- rnaturalearth: World Map Data from Natural Earth.
Citation
citation("mregions2")To cite package ‘mregions2’ in publications use:
Fernández Bejarano S, Pohl L (2024). mregions2: Access Data from Marineregions.org: Gazetteer & Data Products. doi:10.32614/CRAN.package.mregions2 https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.mregions2.
A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is
@Manual{, title = {mregions2: Access Data from Marineregions.org: Gazetteer & Data Products}, author = {Salvador Jesús {Fernández Bejarano} and Lotte Pohl}, year = {2024}, doi = {10.32614/CRAN.package.mregions2}, }
License
MIT. See LICENSE.md
This software is developed for scientific, educational and research purposes. It is not meant to be used for legal, economical (in the sense of exploration of natural resources) or navigational purposes. See the Marine Regions disclaimer for more information.
Code of Conduct
Please note that this package is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By contributing to this project, you agree to abide by its terms.