movecost: An R package for calculating accumulated slope-dependent anisotropic cost-surfaces and least-cost paths

Abstract

Cost-surface and least-cost path analyses are widely used tools to understand the ways in which movement relates and engages with the surrounding space. They are employed in research fields as diverse as the analysis of travel corridors, land accessibility, site locations, maritime pathways, animal seascape connectivity, transportation, search and rescue operations. This work describes the ‘movecost’ package, designed for the free R statistical environment, which provides the facility to produce, in a relatively straightforward way, various accumulated slope-dependent cost surfaces and least-cost outputs from different models of movement across the terrain. The package motivation and significance are described, and the main software characteristics are outlined by means of an illustrative example. Keywords: Geographic information system, Cost surface, Least-cost path, R Package