Getting started with mongolmaps • mongolmaps

mongolmaps gives you ready-made maps of Mongolia. Everything in this vignette works offline: simplified boundaries ship with the package.

library(mongolmaps)

Administrative levels

Mongolia has 21 aimags (provinces) and the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Aimags are divided into soums, and soums into bags. Ulaanbaatar is divided into 9 districts (duureg) and those into khoroos.

Level in mongolmaps	Rural units	Ulaanbaatar units
`"country"`	Mongolia
`"region"`	4 economic regions	Ulaanbaatar is the 5th
`"aimag"`	21 aimags	Ulaanbaatar
`"soum"`	330 soums	9 districts
`"bag"`	~1,650 bags	204 khoroos

Each level has a function:

mn_aimags()
#> Simple feature collection with 22 features and 15 fields
#> Geometry type: MULTIPOLYGON
#> Dimension:     XY
#> Bounding box:  xmin: 87.7345 ymin: 41.58183 xmax: 119.9315 ymax: 52.14835
#> Geodetic CRS:  WGS 84
#> # A tibble: 22 × 16
#>    pcode name      name_en name_mn name_mns level type  number iso_code nso_code
#>    <chr> <chr>     <chr>   <chr>   <chr>    <chr> <chr>  <int> <chr>    <chr>   
#>  1 MN11  Ulaanbaa… Ulaanb… Улаанб… Ulaanba… aimag capi…     NA MN-1     511     
#>  2 MN21  Dornod    Dornod  Дорнод  Dornod   aimag aimag     NA MN-061   421     
#>  3 MN22  Sukhbaat… Sukhba… Сүхбаа… Sükhbaa… aimag aimag     NA MN-051   422     
#>  4 MN23  Khentii   Khentii Хэнтий  Khentii  aimag aimag     NA MN-039   423     
#>  5 MN41  Tuv       Tuv     Төв     Töv      aimag aimag     NA MN-047   341     
#>  6 MN42  Govisumb… Govisu… Говьсү… Govisüm… aimag aimag     NA MN-064   342     
#>  7 MN43  Selenge   Selenge Сэлэнгэ Selenge  aimag aimag     NA MN-049   343     
#>  8 MN44  Dornogovi Dornog… Дорног… Dornogo… aimag aimag     NA MN-063   344     
#>  9 MN45  Darkhan-… Darkha… Дархан… Darkhan… aimag aimag     NA MN-037   345     
#> 10 MN46  Umnugovi  Umnugo… Өмнөго… Ömnögovi aimag aimag     NA MN-053   346     
#> # ℹ 12 more rows
#> # ℹ 6 more variables: parent_pcode <chr>, region_pcode <chr>,
#> #   aimag_pcode <chr>, soum_pcode <chr>, area_km2 <dbl>,
#> #   geometry <MULTIPOLYGON [°]>

All of them return the same columns:

pcode: a code that identifies the unit at any level;
name, name_en, name_mn, name_mns: the name in the chosen language, in English (as NSO writes it), in Cyrillic, and in Latin with diacritics;
level, type, number: what kind of unit it is;
iso_code, nso_code: ISO 3166-2 and NSO statistical codes;
parent_pcode, region_pcode, aimag_pcode, soum_pcode: the units it sits in;
area_km2 and the geometry.

Filtering

Pass the places you want. Names can be spelled any common way.

mn_soums(aimag = "Khovd")
#> Simple feature collection with 17 features and 15 fields
#> Geometry type: MULTIPOLYGON
#> Dimension:     XY
#> Bounding box:  xmin: 90.65037 ymin: 44.99983 xmax: 94.30692 ymax: 48.96636
#> Geodetic CRS:  WGS 84
#> # A tibble: 17 × 16
#>    pcode  name     name_en name_mn name_mns level type  number iso_code nso_code
#>    <chr>  <chr>    <chr>   <chr>   <chr>    <chr> <chr>  <int> <chr>    <chr>   
#>  1 MN8401 Jargala… Jargal… Жаргал… Jargala… soum  soum      NA NA       18401   
#>  2 MN8404 Altai    Altai   Алтай   Altai    soum  soum      NA NA       18404   
#>  3 MN8407 Bulgan   Bulgan  Булган  Bulgan   soum  soum      NA NA       18407   
#>  4 MN8410 Buyant   Buyant  Буянт   Buyant   soum  soum      NA NA       18410   
#>  5 MN8413 Darvi    Darvi   Дарви   Darvi    soum  soum      NA NA       18413   
#>  6 MN8416 Durgun   Durgun  Дөргөн  Dörgön   soum  soum      NA NA       18416   
#>  7 MN8419 Duut     Duut    Дуут    Duut     soum  soum      NA NA       18419   
#>  8 MN8422 Zereg    Zereg   Зэрэг   Zereg    soum  soum      NA NA       18422   
#>  9 MN8425 Mankhan  Mankhan Манхан  Mankhan  soum  soum      NA NA       18425   
#> 10 MN8428 Munkhkh… Munkhk… Мөнхха… Mönkhkh… soum  soum      NA NA       18428   
#> 11 MN8431 Must     Must    Мөст    Möst     soum  soum      NA NA       18431   
#> 12 MN8434 Myangad  Myangad Мянгад  Myangad  soum  soum      NA NA       18434   
#> 13 MN8437 Uyench   Uyench  Үенч    Üyench   soum  soum      NA NA       18437   
#> 14 MN8440 Khovd    Khovd   Ховд    Khovd    soum  soum      NA NA       18440   
#> 15 MN8443 Tsetseg  Tsetseg Цэцэг   Tsetseg  soum  soum      NA NA       18443   
#> 16 MN8446 Chandma… Chandm… Чандма… Chandma… soum  soum      NA NA       18446   
#> 17 MN8449 Erdeneb… Erdene… Эрдэнэ… Erdeneb… soum  soum      NA NA       18449   
#> # ℹ 6 more variables: parent_pcode <chr>, region_pcode <chr>,
#> #   aimag_pcode <chr>, soum_pcode <chr>, area_km2 <dbl>,
#> #   geometry <MULTIPOLYGON [°]>
mn_aimags(region = "Western")
#> Simple feature collection with 5 features and 15 fields
#> Geometry type: MULTIPOLYGON
#> Dimension:     XY
#> Bounding box:  xmin: 87.7345 ymin: 42.69975 xmax: 99.20735 ymax: 50.88443
#> Geodetic CRS:  WGS 84
#> # A tibble: 5 × 16
#>   pcode name       name_en name_mn name_mns level type  number iso_code nso_code
#>   <chr> <chr>      <chr>   <chr>   <chr>    <chr> <chr>  <int> <chr>    <chr>   
#> 1 MN81  Zavkhan    Zavkhan Завхан  Zavkhan  aimag aimag     NA MN-057   181     
#> 2 MN82  Govi-Altai Govi-A… Говь-А… Govi-Al… aimag aimag     NA MN-065   182     
#> 3 MN83  Bayan-Ulg… Bayan-… Баян-Ө… Bayan-Ö… aimag aimag     NA MN-071   183     
#> 4 MN84  Khovd      Khovd   Ховд    Khovd    aimag aimag     NA MN-043   184     
#> 5 MN85  Uvs        Uvs     Увс     Uvs      aimag aimag     NA MN-046   185     
#> # ℹ 6 more variables: parent_pcode <chr>, region_pcode <chr>,
#> #   aimag_pcode <chr>, soum_pcode <chr>, area_km2 <dbl>,
#> #   geometry <MULTIPOLYGON [°]>

Drawing maps

mn_map() draws any of these with ggplot2.

mn_map(mn_soums(aimag = c("Khovd", "Uvs", "Bayan-Ulgii")), fill = aimag_pcode, label = TRUE)

It returns a normal ggplot, so you can keep adding to it:

library(ggplot2)
mn_map(mn_aimags()) +
  geom_sf(data = mn_settlements(type = c("capital", "aimag_centre")), colour = "firebrick") +
  labs(title = "Aimag centres")

With context = TRUE you get neighbouring countries, rivers and lakes:

mn_map(mn_regions(), fill = name, context = TRUE)

Projections

Boundaries come in longitude and latitude (EPSG:4326). mn_map() projects them for you; to project them yourself use crs:

mn_aimags(crs = "albers")
#> Simple feature collection with 22 features and 15 fields
#> Geometry type: MULTIPOLYGON
#> Dimension:     XY
#> Bounding box:  xmin: -1182877 ymin: -601751.4 xmax: 1207275 ymax: 584211.5
#> Projected CRS: +proj=aea +lat_0=47 +lon_0=104 +lat_1=43.5 +lat_2=50.5 +x_0=0 +y_0=0 +datum=WGS84 +units=m +no_defs
#> # A tibble: 22 × 16
#>    pcode name      name_en name_mn name_mns level type  number iso_code nso_code
#>  * <chr> <chr>     <chr>   <chr>   <chr>    <chr> <chr>  <int> <chr>    <chr>   
#>  1 MN11  Ulaanbaa… Ulaanb… Улаанб… Ulaanba… aimag capi…     NA MN-1     511     
#>  2 MN21  Dornod    Dornod  Дорнод  Dornod   aimag aimag     NA MN-061   421     
#>  3 MN22  Sukhbaat… Sukhba… Сүхбаа… Sükhbaa… aimag aimag     NA MN-051   422     
#>  4 MN23  Khentii   Khentii Хэнтий  Khentii  aimag aimag     NA MN-039   423     
#>  5 MN41  Tuv       Tuv     Төв     Töv      aimag aimag     NA MN-047   341     
#>  6 MN42  Govisumb… Govisu… Говьсү… Govisüm… aimag aimag     NA MN-064   342     
#>  7 MN43  Selenge   Selenge Сэлэнгэ Selenge  aimag aimag     NA MN-049   343     
#>  8 MN44  Dornogovi Dornog… Дорног… Dornogo… aimag aimag     NA MN-063   344     
#>  9 MN45  Darkhan-… Darkha… Дархан… Darkhan… aimag aimag     NA MN-037   345     
#> 10 MN46  Umnugovi  Umnugo… Өмнөго… Ömnögovi aimag aimag     NA MN-053   346     
#> # ℹ 12 more rows
#> # ℹ 6 more variables: parent_pcode <chr>, region_pcode <chr>,
#> #   aimag_pcode <chr>, soum_pcode <chr>, area_km2 <dbl>,
#> #   geometry <MULTIPOLYGON [m]>

mn_crs() returns the projections: Albers equal-area for national maps, UTM zone 48N for Ulaanbaatar.

Languages

mn_map(mn_aimags(lang = "mn"), label = TRUE, lang = "mn")

Set options(mongolmaps.lang = "mn") to use Mongolian everywhere.

Higher resolution

The bundled boundaries are simplified. For detailed work, use resolution = "high": the full-resolution boundaries (about 10 MB) are downloaded once and cached.

mn_soums(aimag = "Khovd", resolution = "high")

Where the data come from

mn_sources()[c("id", "provider", "license")]
#> # A tibble: 16 × 3
#>    id             provider                                               license
#>    <chr>          <chr>                                                  <chr>  
#>  1 admin          National Statistics Office of Mongolia; OCHA           CC BY-…
#>  2 khoroos        khoroo-map (GitHub Tuvshin-Level/khoroo-map)           0BSD   
#>  3 codes          National Statistics Office of Mongolia                 Open d…
#>  4 settlements    Wikidata                                               CC0 1.0
#>  5 naturalearth   Natural Earth                                          Public…
#>  6 admin_high     National Statistics Office of Mongolia; OCHA; khoroo-… CC BY-…
#>  7 osm_roads      OpenStreetMap contributors (via HOT export)            ODbL 1…
#>  8 osm_transport  OpenStreetMap contributors (via HOT export)            ODbL 1…
#>  9 osm_water      OpenStreetMap contributors (via HOT export)            ODbL 1…
#> 10 osm_places     OpenStreetMap contributors (via HOT export)            ODbL 1…
#> 11 elevation_1km  Copernicus DEM GLO-90 (DLR; Airbus; ESA; European Uni… Copern…
#> 12 landcover_1km  ESA WorldCover project                                 CC BY …
#> 13 copernicus_dem Copernicus DEM GLO-90 (DLR; Airbus; ESA; European Uni… Copern…
#> 14 worldcover     ESA WorldCover project                                 CC BY …
#> 15 worldpop       WorldPop (University of Southampton)                   CC BY …
#> 16 wdpa           UNEP-WCMC and IUCN (Protected Planet)                  WDPA t…

Please credit the providers; mn_citation() gives the text.