Package: bufferscape 1.2.0

bufferscape: Distance-Weighted Landscape Composition in Buffers Around Point Locations

Characterises the environment surrounding point locations by computing land-cover composition within circular buffers directly from vector polygons, without conversion to a raster grid. For each site and each class it returns the exact surface area inside the buffer and a distance-decay weighted "effective" area in which the kernel is integrated over polygon geometry rather than evaluated at the polygon centroid, avoiding the large bias the centroid approximation introduces for elongated features passing close to the site. Polygons may overlap, so class areas are not constrained to sum to the buffer area. Intended for buffer-based exposure assessment and fine-scale spatial epidemiology, where the relevant scale is tens of metres and global land-cover products are too coarse: land-use regression around air-quality monitors, green space around residential addresses, vector-surveillance traps, and comparable designs. The classification dictionary is user-supplied, and point features and distances to off-buffer reference features are recorded alongside the areas.

Authors:Michele Planta [aut, cre]