elevationus

Retrieves elevation data for US geographies. Built on tigris and elevatr.

get_elevation_data() takes a state, county or tract fips code and returns a map, a gridded raster of elevation data, raw elevation data and an estimate of mean elevation across the geography.

get_elevation_data_batch() take a state FIPS code and returns elevation data for counties or tracts within that state. Elevation data includes the mean elevation for the substate geography and also the elevation at the center of population. The center of population elevation helps account for the fact that population density and elevation are sometimes inversely correlated (e.g., a situation where the county includes a mountain and a valley but most people live in the valley).

Installation

install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("marsha5813/elevationus")

Examples

Get elevation data for the state of Oregon

library(elevationus)
elev <- get_elevation_data(level = "state", geoid = "41")
print(paste("Mean elevation:",elev$elevation_mean,"meters"))
elev$map

[1] "Mean elevation: 1073 meters"

Get elevation for just one county.

Increase resolution to 5 arc seconds.

elev <- get_elevation_data(level = "county", geoid = "24021", z = 10)
print(paste("Mean elevation:",elev$elevation_mean,"meters"))
elev$map

"Mean elevation: 183 meters"

Get elevation for just one tract

Notice the pixelated elevation data at 5 arc seconds

elev <- get_elevation_data(level = "tract", geoid = "24510200100", z = 10)
print(paste("Mean elevation:",elev$elevation_mean,"meters"))
elev$map

"Mean elevation: 51 meters"

Get elevation for just one tract at higher resolution

Dial resolution up to 1/3 arc seconds

elev <- get_elevation_data(level = "tract", geoid = "24510200100", z = 14)
elev$map

Get elevation data for all counties in Maryland

get_elevation_data_batch(level = "county", state = "24")

	GEOID	NAMELSAD	STATE_NAME	elevation_popcenter	elevation_popcenter
1	24001	Allegany County	Maryland	505	382
2	24003	Anne Arundel County	Maryland	30	29
3	24005	Baltimore County	Maryland	138	130
4	24009	Calvert County	Maryland	45	27
5	24011	Caroline County	Maryland	13	15
...

Get elevation data for all tracts in Maryland

get_elevation_data_batch(level = "tract", state = "24")

	GEOID	NAMELSAD	NAMELSADCO	STATE_NAME	elevation_popcenter	elevation_mean
1	24001000100	Census Tract 1	Allegany County	Maryland	381	306
2	24001000200	Census Tract 2	Allegany County	Maryland	366	311
3	24001000500	Census Tract 5	Allegany County	Maryland	241	237
4	24001000600	Census Tract 6	Allegany County	Maryland	246	224
...

Get elevation for tracts in Allegany County, Maryland

get_elevation_data_batch(level = "tract", state = "24", county = "001")

(table not shown)

Notes

The 'z' argument ranges from 0 to 16 and is passed to elevatr::get_elev_raster(). See the tilezen documentation for data sources and resolutions returned at each level of z.

Roadmap

Future features

Option for whole nation

Future fixes

Handle imports more carefully. See function conflicts. Import specific functions rather than whole namespaces.