## Applying models spatially

Here we will provide a brief overview of how applying models to unseen data. The general idea is that one has fitted a model to predict some soil phenomena using a suite of environmental covariates. Now you need to use that model to apply to a the same covariates, but now these covariates have continuous coverage across the area. Essentially you want to create a soil map. There are a couple of ways to go about this. First things first we need to prepare some data and fit a simple model.

### Data preparation

Recall from before in the data preparatory exercises that we were working with the soil point data and environmental covariates for the Hunter Valley area. These data are stored in the HV_subsoilpH and hunterCovariates_sub objects from the ithir package.

library(ithir)
library(raster)

library(rgdal)

## rgdal: version: 1.4-8, (SVN revision 845)
##  Geospatial Data Abstraction Library extensions to R successfully loaded
##  Loaded GDAL runtime: GDAL 2.2.3, released 2017/11/20
##  Path to GDAL shared files: /usr/share/gdal/2.2
##  GDAL binary built with GEOS: TRUE
##  Loaded PROJ.4 runtime: Rel. 4.9.3, 15 August 2016, [PJ_VERSION: 493]
##  Path to PROJ.4 shared files: (autodetected)
##  Linking to sp version: 1.3-2

library(sp)

# point data
data(HV_subsoilpH)

# Start afresh round pH data to 2 decimal places
HV_subsoilpH$pH60_100cm <- round(HV_subsoilpH$pH60_100cm, 2)

HV_subsoilpH <- HV_subsoilpH[, 1:3]

HV_subsoilpH$id <- seq(1, nrow(HV_subsoilpH), by = 1) # re-arrange order of columns HV_subsoilpH <- HV_subsoilpH[, c(4, 1, 2, 3)] # Change names of coordinate columns names(HV_subsoilpH)[2:3] <- c("x", "y") # grids (covariate raster) data(hunterCovariates_sub)  Perform the covariate intersection. coordinates(HV_subsoilpH) <- ~x + y # extract DSM_data <- extract(hunterCovariates_sub, HV_subsoilpH, sp = 1, method = "simple") DSM_data <- as.data.frame(DSM_data) str(DSM_data) ## 'data.frame': 506 obs. of 15 variables: ##$ id                      : num  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ...
##  $x : num 340386 340345 340559 340483 340734 ... ##$ y                       : num  6368690 6368491 6369168 6368740 6368964 ...
##  $pH60_100cm : num 4.47 5.42 6.26 8.03 8.86 7.28 4.95 5.61 5.39 3.44 ... ##$ Terrain_Ruggedness_Index: num  1.34 1.42 1.64 1.04 1.27 ...
##  $AACN : num 1.619 0.281 2.301 1.74 3.114 ... ##$ Landsat_Band1           : num  57 47 59 52 62 53 47 52 53 63 ...
##  $Elevation : num 103.1 103.7 99.9 101.9 99.8 ... ##$ Hillshading             : num  1.849 1.428 0.934 1.517 1.652 ...
##  $Light_insolation : num 1689 1701 1722 1688 1735 ... ##$ Mid_Slope_Positon       : num  0.876 0.914 0.844 0.848 0.833 ...
##  $MRVBF : num 3.85 3.31 3.66 3.92 3.89 ... ##$ NDVI                    : num  -0.143 -0.386 -0.197 -0.14 -0.15 ...
##  $TWI : num 17.5 18.2 18.8 18 17.8 ... ##$ Slope                   : num  1.79 1.42 1.01 1.49 1.83 ...


### Model fitting

hv.MLR.Full <- lm(pH60_100cm ~ +Terrain_Ruggedness_Index + AACN + Landsat_Band1 +
Elevation + Hillshading + Light_insolation + Mid_Slope_Positon + MRVBF + NDVI +
TWI + Slope, data = DSM_data)
summary(hv.MLR.Full)

##
## Call:
## lm(formula = pH60_100cm ~ +Terrain_Ruggedness_Index + AACN +
##     Landsat_Band1 + Elevation + Hillshading + Light_insolation +
##     Mid_Slope_Positon + MRVBF + NDVI + TWI + Slope, data = DSM_data)
##
## Residuals:
##     Min      1Q  Median      3Q     Max
## -3.2380 -0.7843 -0.1225  0.7057  3.4641
##
## Coefficients:
##                           Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)
## (Intercept)               5.372452   2.147673   2.502 0.012689 *
## Terrain_Ruggedness_Index  0.075084   0.054893   1.368 0.171991
## AACN                      0.034747   0.007241   4.798 2.12e-06 ***
## Landsat_Band1            -0.037712   0.009355  -4.031 6.42e-05 ***
## Elevation                -0.013535   0.005550  -2.439 0.015079 *
## Hillshading               0.152819   0.053655   2.848 0.004580 **
## Light_insolation          0.001329   0.001178   1.127 0.260081
## Mid_Slope_Positon         0.928823   0.268625   3.458 0.000592 ***
## MRVBF                     0.324041   0.084942   3.815 0.000154 ***
## NDVI                      4.982413   0.887322   5.615 3.28e-08 ***
## TWI                       0.085150   0.045976   1.852 0.064615 .
## Slope                    -0.102262   0.062391  -1.639 0.101838
## ---
## Signif. codes:  0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1
##
## Residual standard error: 1.178 on 494 degrees of freedom
## Multiple R-squared:  0.2501, Adjusted R-squared:  0.2334
## F-statistic: 14.97 on 11 and 494 DF,  p-value: < 2.2e-16


### Applying the model spatially using data frames

The traditional approach has been to collate a grid table where there would be two columns for the coordinates followed by other columns for each of the available covariates that were sourced. This was seen as an efficient way to organize all the covariate data as it ensured that a common grid was used which also meant that all the covariates are of the same scale in terms of resolution and extent. We can simulate the covariate table approach using the hunterCovariates_sub object as below.

data(hunterCovariates_sub)
tempD <- data.frame(cellNos = seq(1:ncell(hunterCovariates_sub)))
vals <- as.data.frame(getValues(hunterCovariates_sub))
tempD <- cbind(tempD, vals)
tempD <- tempD[complete.cases(tempD), ]
cellNos <- c(tempD$cellNos) gXY <- data.frame(xyFromCell(hunterCovariates_sub, cellNos, spatial = FALSE)) tempD <- cbind(gXY, tempD) str(tempD) ## 'data.frame': 33252 obs. of 14 variables: ##$ x                       : num  340935 340960 340985 341010 341035 ...
##  $y : num 6370416 6370416 6370416 6370416 6370416 ... ##$ cellNos                 : int  101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 ...
##  $Terrain_Ruggedness_Index: num 0.745 0.632 0.535 0.472 0.486 ... ##$ AACN                    : num  9.78 9.86 10.04 10.27 10.53 ...
##  $Landsat_Band1 : num 68 63 59 62 56 54 59 62 54 56 ... ##$ Elevation               : num  103 103 102 102 102 ...
##  $Hillshading : num 0.94 0.572 0.491 0.515 0.568 ... ##$ Light_insolation        : num  1712 1706 1701 1699 1697 ...
##  $Mid_Slope_Positon : num 0.389 0.387 0.386 0.386 0.386 ... ##$ MRVBF                   : num  0.376 0.765 1.092 1.54 1.625 ...
##  $NDVI : num -0.178 -0.18 -0.164 -0.169 -0.172 ... ##$ TWI                     : num  16.9 17.2 17.2 17.2 17.2 ...
##  \$ Slope                   : num  0.968 0.588 0.503 0.527 0.581 ...


The result shown above is that the covariate table contains 33252 rows and has 14 variables. It is always necessary to have the coordinate columns, but some saving of memory could be earned if only the required covariates are appended to the table. It will quickly become obvious however that the covariate table approach could be limiting when mapping extents get very large or the grid resolution of mapping becomes more fine-grained, or both.

With the covariate table arranged it then becomes a matter of using the MLR predict function.

map.MLR <- predict(hv.MLR.Full, newdata = tempD)
map.MLR <- cbind(data.frame(tempD[, c("x", "y")]), map.MLR)


Now we can rasterise the predictions for mapping and grid export. In the example below we set the CRS to WGS84 Zone 56 before exporting the raster file out as a Geotiff file.

map.MLR.r <- rasterFromXYZ(as.data.frame(map.MLR[, 1:3]))
plot(map.MLR.r, main = "MLR predicted soil pH (60-100cm)")
# set the projection
crs(map.MLR.r) <- "+proj=utm +zone=56 + south + ellps=WGS84 +datum=WGS84 +units=m +no_defs"
writeRaster(map.MLR.r, "soilpH_60_100_MLR.tif", format = "GTiff", datatype = "FLT4S",
overwrite = TRUE)
# check working directory for presence of raster


Some of the parameters used within the writeRaster function that are worth noting include: format, which is the raster format that we want to write to. Here GTiff is being specified — use the writeFormats function to look at what other raster formats can be used. the parameter datatype is specified as FLT4S which indicates that a 4 byte, signed floating point values are to be written to file. Look at the function dataType to look at other alternatives, for example for categorical data where we may be interested in logical or integer values.

### Applying the model spatially using raster predict

Probably a more efficient way of applying the fitted model is to apply it directly to the rasters themselves. This avoids the step of arranging all covariates into table format. If multiple rasters are being used, it is necessary to have them arranged as a rasterStack object. This is useful as it also ensures all the rasters are of the same extent and resolution. Here we can use the raster predict function such as below using the covStack raster stack as input.

map.MLR.r1 <- predict(hunterCovariates_sub, hv.MLR.Full, "soilpH_60_100_MLR.tif",
format = "GTiff", datatype = "FLT4S", overwrite = TRUE)
# check working directory for presence of raster


### Applying the model spatially using parallel processing

An extension of using the raster predict function is to apply the model again to the rasters, but to do it across multiple computer nodes. This is akin to breaking a job up into smaller pieces then processing the jobs in parallel rather than sequentially. The parallel component here is that the smaller pieces are passed to more than 1 compute nodes. Most desktop computers these days can have up to 8 compute nodes which can result in some excellent gains in efficiency when applying models across massive extents and or at fine resolutions. The raster package has some built in dependencies with other R packages that facilitate parallel processing options. For example the raster package ports with the parallel package for setting up and controlling the compute node processes. The script below is an example of using 4 compute nodes to apply the hv.MLR.Full model to the hunterCovariates_sub raster stack.

library(parallel)
beginCluster(4)
cluserMLR.pred <- clusterR(hunterCovariates_sub, predict, args = list(hv.MLR.Full),
filename = "soilpH_60_100_MLR_pred.tif", format = "GTiff", progress = FALSE,
overwrite = T)
endCluster()


To set up the compute nodes, you use the beginCluster function and inside it, specify how many compute nodes you want to use. If empty brackets are used, the function will use 100% of the compute resources. The clusterR function is the work horse function that then applies the model in parallel to the rasters. The parameters and subsequent options are similar to the raster predict function, although it would help to look at the help files on this function for more detailed explanations. It is always important after the prediction is completed to shutdown the nodes using the endCluster function.

The relative ease in setting up the parallel processing for our mapping needs has really opened up the potential for performing DSM using very large data sets and rasters. Moreover, using the parallel processing together with the file pointing ability (that was discussed earlier) raster has made the possibility of big DSM a reality, and importantly- practicable.