plotting a map of north greenland in R

Question

My knowledge in GIS and R is again tested when I want to map a small part of northern Greenland (called Washington Land) in R (and plot analysis data on top later).

I've managed to plot it with

library(maps)
library(mapdata)
library(rworldmap)
map("worldHires", "Greenland", xlim=c(-67,-63), ylim=c(78,82))
newmap <- getMap(resolution = "high")
plot(newmap, xlim=c(-67, -63), ylim=c(78,82), asp=1)

But resolution and projection is horrible for this area and my need.

I have a good map in MapInfo, but how should I output a map, so it can load in R and R can plot data accurately on top of it?

Answer 1

You could use the freely available Level 2 GADM shapefile data for Greenland, which comes in EPSG:4326 (Lat/Lon projection) by default, and import it into R using the GDAL functionalities offered by the rgdal package. Then, define the geographic extent for Washington Land and crop the previously imported shapefile. Make sure you have all the required dependencies installed (e.g. rgeos)

# Required packages
library(rgdal)
library(raster)

# Import Greenland shapefile data
shp.greenland <- readOGR(dsn = "/path/to/shapefile/folder", 
                         layer = "GRL_adm2")

# Define cropping extent for Washington Land
ext.washington.land <- extent(-67, -63, 78, 82)

# Subset Greenland shapefile
shp.washington.land <- crop(shp.greenland, ext.washington.land)

Update:
Now, if you'd like to include glaciated areas, you could download e.g. the corresponding 10m shapefile from Natural Earth, import and crop it according to the predefined extent, and add it to your plot.

# Import glaciated areas
shp.glaciers <- readOGR(dsn = "/path/to/shapefile/folder", 
                        layer = "ne_10m_glaciated_areas")

# Subset (and plot) glaciated areas by extent of Washington Land
shp.glaciers <- crop(shp.glaciers, ext.washington.land)

plot(shp.washington.land, col = "darkolivegreen3")
plot(shp.glaciers, col = "azure", add = TRUE)