Convert Points to Buffered Polygons Based on Area

This function converts POINT or MULTIPOINT geometries into circular polygons using the specified area attribute to calculate a radius (assuming the area is in hectares or another square unit). The buffer is created in a projected CRS (default: Mollweide, EPSG:54009) and then transformed back to the input CRS. Optionally, original polygon features can be retained and combined with the buffered features.

Usage

convert_points_polygon(
  sf_layer,
  area_attr = "REP_AREA",
  area_crs = "ESRI:54009",
  nQuadSegs = 50,
  append_original_polygons = TRUE,
  area_multiplier = 1e+06
)

Arguments

sf_layer

An sf object containing geometries, including points or multipoints and an area column.

area_attr

Character. Name of the attribute column that contains site area (default: "REP_AREA").

area_crs

Character. CRS used for buffering operation (default: "ESRI:54009" = World Mollweide).

nQuadSegs

Integer. Number of segments per circle quadrant for buffering (default: 50).

append_original_polygons

Logical. If TRUE, appends original polygons to buffered features (default: TRUE).

area_multiplier

Numeric. Multiplier applied to the area attribute to convert units (e.g., 1e4 for hectares to m2).

Value

An sf object containing polygon features (either buffered points, original polygons, or both). The sf object can be empty. If no valid features are found, returns NULL.

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
buffered <- convert_points_polygon(
  sf_layer = my_kba_layer,
  area_attr = "gisarea",
  area_crs = "ESRI:54009",
  append_original_polygons = TRUE
)
} # }