Visualize results with st.plot()

st.plot() is a lightweight plotting method included with ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Engine that allows you to quickly view geometries stored in a Spark DataFrame. This tutorial will show you how to use st.plot to plot one or more geometry columns, how to customize plot axes and add a legend, and how to symbolize on continuous and categorical column values.

Prerequisites

The following are required for this tutorial:

1. A running Spark session configured with ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Engine.
2. A notebook connected to your Spark session (e.g. Jupyter, JupyterLab, Databricks, EMR, etc.).
3. An internet connection (for accessing sample data).

Steps

Import and authorize

1. In your notebook, import geoanalytics and authorize the module using a username and password, or a license file.

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   import geoanalytics
   geoanalytics.auth(username="user1", password="p@ssword")
   

Plot geometry columns

You can plot the geometries in any Spark DataFrame by calling st.plot() on the DataFrame. Different arguments can be used to customize the plot depending on the geometry type being plotted. The arguments supported by each geometry type are documented in the API reference for st.plot and in matplotlib. For points see matplotlib.pyplot.scatter, for linestrings see matplotlib.collections.LineCollection, and for polygons see matplotlib.collections.PatchCollection.

1. Load a polygon feature service of US state boundaries into a DataFrame.

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   url = "https://services.arcgis.com/P3ePLMYs2RVChkJx/ArcGIS/rest/services/USA_States_Generalized/FeatureServer/0"
   us_states = spark.read.format("feature-service").load(url)
   

2. Plot the state boundaries using default plot settings.

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   us_states.st.plot()
   
   

3. Customize the geometry symbology using st.plot arguments and matplotlib.collections.PatchCollection class attributes. In this example the following parameters are used:

   • facecolor—The color used to fill each polygon.
   • edgecolor—The color of the polygon outlines.
   • figsize—Adjusts the size of the result plot.
   • aspect—Sets the ratio of the height of the plot to the width of the plot. Setting this to "equal" maintains the original aspect of the data when adjusting figsize.
   • basemap—Adds a basemap to the plot. Choose from "light" (Light Gray Canvas), "dark" (Dark Gray Canvas), "streets" (Esri Streets Basemap) or "osm" (OpenStreetMap Vector Basemap). New in version 1.1.0.
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   us_states.st.plot(facecolor="lightblue", edgecolor="white", figsize=(14, 14), basemap="light")
   
   

4. Customize the plot axes by calling the set method on the axes returned from st.plot. In this example the following parameters are used:

   • xlim,ylim—The minimum and maximum x and y values to plot. These can be used to limit the extent of your plot.
   • frame_on—Set to False so that axes lines are hidden.
   • xticks, yticks—Set to an empty list to hide ticks.
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   axes = us_states.st.plot(facecolor="lightblue", edgecolor="white", figsize=(14, 14), basemap="light")
   axes.set(xlim=(-1.4e7, -7.3e6), ylim=(2.8e6, 6.5e6), frame_on=False, xticks=[], yticks=[])
   
   

5. The Axes returned from st.plot can be used to plot multiple geometry columns. Load a point feature service of major cities in the United States and plot it with the state polygons.

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   axes = us_states.st.plot(facecolor="lightblue", edgecolor="white", figsize=(14, 14), basemap="light")
   axes.set(xlim=(-1.4e7, -7.3e6), ylim=(2.8e6, 6.5e6), frame_on=False, xticks=[], yticks=[])
   
   url = "https://services.arcgis.com/P3ePLMYs2RVChkJx/ArcGIS/rest/services/USA_Major_Cities/FeatureServer/0"
   us_cities = spark.read.format("feature-service").load(url)
   
   us_cities.st.plot(ax=axes)
   
   

Plot continuous field values

There are three ways to color geometries in a plot:

• All geometries are the same color (this is the default)
• Using a continuous color scheme based on numeric values in a column
• Using a categorical color scheme based on values in a column

Using a continuous color scheme visualizes how numeric column values change across the spatial extent of your data.

1. Load a feature service containing the current wind speed at point locations across the United States.

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   url = "https://services9.arcgis.com/RHVPKKiFTONKtxq3/ArcGIS/rest/services/NDFD_WindForecast_v1/FeatureServer/0"
   wind_speed = spark.read.format("feature-service").load(url)
   

2. Plot the wind speed points with the state boundary polygons and use the WindSpeed column to color the points. In this example the following parameters are used:

   • cmap_value —The numeric column to use for continuous coloring.
   • cmap—The colormap to use when plotting.
   • vmin, vmax—The minimum and maximum values to show.
   • marker_size—The size of the points. An attribute of matplotlib.pyplot.scatter.
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   axes = us_states.st.plot(facecolor="lightblue", edgecolor="white", figsize=(14, 14), basemap="light")
   axes.set(xlim=(-1.4e7, -7.3e6), ylim=(2.8e6, 6.5e6), frame_on=False, xticks=[], yticks=[])
   
   most_recent_measure_time = wind_speed.agg({"IntervalStart": "min"}).collect()[0][0]
   wind_speed = wind_speed.where(wind_speed.IntervalStart == most_recent_measure_time)
   
   wind_speed.st.plot(ax=axes, cmap_values="WindSpeed", cmap="plasma", marker_size=150, vmax=30, vmin=5)
   
   

3. Create the same plot but add a legend and customize it using a dictionary of legend keyword arguments. When the legend is continuous, any properties of matplotlib.pyplot.colorbar can be used. This example uses the following parameters:

   • label—The title of the legend to display.
   • orientation—Orients the legend horizontally or vertically.
   • location—Determines which side of the plot the legend will appear at.
   • shrink—Determines the size of the legend relative to the default.
   • pad—The distance between the legend and the plot.
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   axes = us_states.st.plot(facecolor="lightblue", edgecolor="white", figsize=(14, 14), basemap="light")
   axes.set(xlim=(-1.4e7, -7.3e6), ylim=(2.8e6, 6.5e6), frame_on=False, xticks=[], yticks=[])
   
   wind_speed.st.plot(ax=axes, cmap_values="WindSpeed", cmap="plasma", marker_size=150,
                      vmax=30, vmin=5,
                      legend=True,
                      legend_kwds={"label": "Current Wind Speed (mph)", "orientation": "horizontal",
                                   "location": "bottom", "shrink": 0.8, "pad": 0.02})
   
   

Plot categorical field values

A categorical color scheme is the best choice when symbolizing with a column that contains discrete data such as strings or boolean values.

1. Load a polygon feature service of areas representing different seabed lithologies throughout the world.

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   url = "https://services.arcgis.com/P3ePLMYs2RVChkJx/arcgis/rest/services/Seabed_Lithology/FeatureServer/0"
   seabed_lithology = spark.read.format("feature-service").load(url)
   

2. Plot the lithological areas using a categorical color scheme by setting is_categorical to True and setting the Class field for cmap_values.

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   axes = seabed_lithology.st.plot(is_categorical=True, cmap_values="Class", cmap="gist_ncar", figsize=(14,14))
   axes.set(frame_on=False, xticks=[], yticks=[])
   
   

3. Create the same plot but add a legend and customize it using a dictionary of legend keyword arguments. When the legend is categorical, any properties of matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend can be used. This example uses the following parameters:

   • bbox_to_anchor—The location of the legend relative to the plot.
   • fontsize—The size of the class labels.
   • markerscale—The size of the legend marker relative to the default.
   • title, title_fontsize—Can be omitted for no title.
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   axes = seabed_lithology.st.plot(is_categorical=True, cmap_values="Class", cmap="gist_ncar", figsize=(14,14),
                                   legend=True, legend_kwds={"bbox_to_anchor": (1.22, 0.8), "fontsize": "medium", "markerscale": 3,
                                                             "title": "World Seabed Lithology", "title_fontsize": "x-large"})
   axes.set(frame_on=False, xticks=[], yticks=[]);
   

What's next?

Because st.plot extends matplotlib, you can leverage the rich plotting capabilities in matplotlib for plotting your geometry data. The examples shown here are a basic introduction to what's possible with st.plot and matplotlib - for more ideas see the GeoAnalytics Engine sample notebooks and matplotlib's documentation.