# Getting Started

# Introduction

This package adds resampling methods for the {mlr3} package framework suited for spatial, temporal and spatiotemporal data. These methods can help to reduce the influence of autocorrelation on performance estimates when performing cross-validation. While this article gives a rather technical introduction to the package, a more applied approach can be found in the mlr3book section on “Spatiotemporal Analysis”.

After loading the package via `library("mlr3spatiotempcv")`, the spatiotemporal resampling methods and example tasks provided by {mlr3spatiotempcv} are available to the user alongside the default {mlr3} resampling methods and tasks.

## Creating a spatial Task

To make use of spatial resampling methods, a {mlr3} task that is aware of its spatial characteristic needs to be created. Two `Task` child classes exist in {mlr3spatiotempcv} for this purpose:

- `TaskClassifST`
- `TaskRegrST`

To create one of these, you have multiple options:

1. Use the constructor of the `Task` directly via `$new()` - this only works for data.table backends (!)
2. Use the `as_task_*` converters (e.g. if your data is stored in an `sf` object)

We recommend the latter, as the `as_task_*` converters aim to make task construction easier, e.g., by creating the `DataBackend` (which is required to create a Task in {mlr3}) automatically and setting the `crs` and `coordinate_names` fields. Let’s assume your (point) data is stored in with an `sf` object, which is a common scenario for spatial analysis in R.

    # create 'sf' object
    data_sf = sf::st_as_sf(ecuador, coords = c("x", "y"), crs = 32717)

    # create `TaskClassifST` from `sf` object
    task = as_task_classif_st(data_sf, id = "ecuador_task", target = "slides", positive = "TRUE")

You can also use a plain `data.frame`. In this case, `crs` and `coordinate_names` need to be passed along explicitly as they cannot be inferred directly from the `sf` object:

    task = as_task_classif_st(ecuador, id = "ecuador_task", target = "slides",
      positive = "TRUE", coordinate_names = c("x", "y"), crs = 32717)

The `*ST` task family prints a subset of the coordinates by default:

    print(task)
    #>
    #> ── <TaskClassifST> (751x11) ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
    #> • Target: slides
    #> • Properties: twoclass
    #> • Features (10):
    #>   • dbl (10): carea, cslope, dem, distdeforest, distroad, distslidespast,
    #>   hcurv, log.carea, slope, vcurv
    #> * Coordinates:
    #>             x       y
    #>         <num>   <num>
    #>   1: 712882.5 9560002
    #>   2: 715232.5 9559582
    #>   3: 715392.5 9560172
    #>   4: 715042.5 9559312
    #>   5: 715382.5 9560142
    #>  ---
    #> 747: 714472.5 9558482
    #> 748: 713142.5 9560992
    #> 749: 713322.5 9560562
    #> 750: 715392.5 9557932
    #> 751: 713802.5 9560862

All `*ST` tasks can be treated as their super class equivalents `TaskClassif` or `TaskRegr` in subsequent {mlr3} modeling steps.

# Contributed reflections by {mlr3spatiotempcv}

In {mlr3}, dictionaries are used for overview purposes of available methods. The following sections show which dictionaries get appended with new entries when loading {mlr3spatiotempcv}.

# Task Type

- `TaskClassifST`

- `TaskRegrST`

    mlr_reflections$task_types
    #> Key: <type>
    #>            type          package             task        learner
    #>          <char>           <char>           <char>         <char>
    #> 1:      classif             mlr3      TaskClassif LearnerClassif
    #> 2:   classif_st mlr3spatiotempcv    TaskClassifST LearnerClassif
    #> 3:         regr             mlr3         TaskRegr    LearnerRegr
    #> 4:      regr_st mlr3spatiotempcv       TaskRegrST    LearnerRegr
    #> 5: unsupervised             mlr3 TaskUnsupervised        Learner
    #>           prediction       prediction_data        measure
    #>               <char>                <char>         <char>
    #> 1: PredictionClassif PredictionDataClassif MeasureClassif
    #> 2: PredictionClassif PredictionDataClassif MeasureClassif
    #> 3:    PredictionRegr    PredictionDataRegr    MeasureRegr
    #> 4:    PredictionRegr    PredictionDataRegr    MeasureRegr
    #> 5:              <NA>                  <NA>           <NA>

# Task Column Roles

- `coordinate`

- `space`

- `time`

    mlr_reflections$task_col_roles
    #> $regr
    #> [1] "feature"         "target"          "name"            "order"
    #> [5] "stratum"         "group"           "offset"          "weights_learner"
    #> [9] "weights_measure"
    #>
    #> $classif
    #> [1] "feature"         "target"          "name"            "order"
    #> [5] "stratum"         "group"           "offset"          "weights_learner"
    #> [9] "weights_measure"
    #>
    #> $unsupervised
    #> [1] "feature" "name"    "order"
    #>
    #> $classif_st
    #>  [1] "feature"         "target"          "name"            "order"
    #>  [5] "stratum"         "group"           "offset"          "weights_learner"
    #>  [9] "weights_measure" "coordinate"      "space"           "time"
    #>
    #> $regr_st
    #>  [1] "feature"         "target"          "name"            "order"
    #>  [5] "stratum"         "group"           "offset"          "weights_learner"
    #>  [9] "weights_measure" "coordinate"      "space"           "time"

# Resampling Methods

- `mlr_resampling_spcv_block`

- `mlr_resampling_spcv_buffer`

- `mlr_resampling_spcv_coords`

- `mlr_resampling_spcv_knndm`

- `mlr_resampling_spcv_disc`

- `mlr_resampling_spcv_tiles`

- `mlr_resampling_spcv_env`

- `mlr_resampling_sptcv_cstf`

and their respective repeated versions. See `as.data.table(mlr_resamplings)` for the full dictionary.

# Examples Tasks

- `tsk("ecuador")` (spatial, classif)

- `tsk("cookfarm_mlr3")` (spatiotemp, regr)

# Upstream Packages and Scientific References

The following table lists all spatiotemporal methods implemented in {mlr3spatiotempcv} (or {mlr3}), their upstream R package and scientific references. All methods besides `"spcv_buffer"` also have a corresponding “repeated” method.

Category | (Package) Method Name | Reference | mlr3 Notation
--- | --- | --- | ---
Buffering, spatial | (blockCV) Spatial Buffering | Valavi et al. (2018) | `mlr_resamplings_spcv_buffer`
Buffering, spatial | (sperrorest) Spatial Disc | Brenning (2012) | `mlr_resamplings_spcv_disc`
Blocking, spatial | (blockCV) Spatial Blocking | Valavi et al. (2018) | `mlr_resamplings_spcv_block`
Blocking, spatial | (sperrorest) Spatial Tiles | Valavi et al. (2018) | `mlr_resamplings_spcv_tiles`
Clustering, spatial | (sperrorest) Spatial CV | Brenning (2012) | `mlr_resamplings_spcv_coords`
Clustering, spatial | (CAST) KNNDM | Linnenbrink et al. (2023) | `mlr_resamplings_spcv_knndm`
Clustering, feature-space | (blockCV) Environmental Blocking | Valavi et al. (2018) | `mlr_resamplings_spcv_env`

Grouping, predefined inds | (mlr3) Predefined partitions |  | `mlr_resamplings_custom_cv`
Grouping, spatiotemporal | (mlr3) via `col_roles` `"group"` |  | `mlr_resamplings_cv`, `Task$set_col_roles(<variable>, "group")`
Grouping, spatiotemporal | (CAST) Leave-Location-and-Time-Out | Meyer et al. (2018) | `mlr_resamplings_sptcv_cstf`, `Task$set_col_roles(<variable>, "space|time")`

# References

Brenning, Alexander. 2012. “Spatial cross-validation and bootstrap for the assessment of prediction rules in remote sensing: The R package sperrorest.” In 2012 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/igarss.2012.6352393.
Linnenbrink, Jan, Carles Milà, Marvin Ludwig, and Hanna Meyer. 2023. “kNNDM: K-Fold Nearest Neighbour Distance Matching Cross-Validation for Map Accuracy Estimation.” EGUsphere, July, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1308.
Meyer, Hanna, Christoph Reudenbach, Tomislav Hengl, Marwan Katurji, and Thomas Nauss. 2018. “Improving Performance of Spatio-Temporal Machine Learning Models Using Forward Feature Selection and Target-Oriented Validation.” Environmental Modelling & Software 101 (March): 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.12.001.
Valavi, Roozbeh, Jane Elith, Jose J. Lahoz-Monfort, and Gurutzeta Guillera-Arroita. 2018. “blockCV: an R package for generating spatially or environmentally separated folds for k-fold cross-validation of species distribution models.” bioRxiv, June. https://doi.org/10.1101/357798.