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Simplifies the geometry to within a given error margin. Note that this does not respect the error margin requested by the consumer of this algorithm, unless maxError is explicitly specified to be null.
This overrides the default Earth Engine policy for propagating error margins, so regardless of the geometry accuracy requested from the output, the inputs will be requested with the error margin specified in the arguments to this algorithm. This results in consistent rendering at all zoom levels of a rendered vector map, but at lower zoom levels (i.e. zoomed out), the geometry won't be simplified, which may harm performance.
Usage
Returns
Polygon.simplify(maxError, proj)
Geometry
Argument
Type
Details
this: geometry
Geometry
The geometry to simplify.
maxError
ErrorMargin
The maximum amount of error by which the result may differ from the input.
proj
Projection, default: null
If specified, the result will be in this projection. Otherwise it will be in the same projection as the input. If the error margin is in projected units, the margin will be interpreted as units of this projection.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2024-07-13 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eSimplifies geometries within a specified error margin, potentially overriding Earth Engine's default error handling.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ccode\u003emaxError\u003c/code\u003e argument dictates the allowed deviation of the simplified geometry from the original.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsing the \u003ccode\u003esimplify\u003c/code\u003e method can result in consistent rendering across zoom levels but might impact performance at lower zoom levels due to reduced simplification.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe optional \u003ccode\u003eproj\u003c/code\u003e argument allows specifying the projection for the simplified geometry and how the error margin is interpreted.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# ee.Geometry.Polygon.simplify\n\nSimplifies the geometry to within a given error margin. Note that this does not respect the error margin requested by the consumer of this algorithm, unless maxError is explicitly specified to be null.\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\nThis overrides the default Earth Engine policy for propagating error margins, so regardless of the geometry accuracy requested from the output, the inputs will be requested with the error margin specified in the arguments to this algorithm. This results in consistent rendering at all zoom levels of a rendered vector map, but at lower zoom levels (i.e. zoomed out), the geometry won't be simplified, which may harm performance.\n\n| Usage | Returns |\n|----------------------------------------|----------|\n| Polygon.simplify`(maxError, `*proj*`)` | Geometry |\n\n| Argument | Type | Details |\n|------------------|---------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|\n| this: `geometry` | Geometry | The geometry to simplify. |\n| `maxError` | ErrorMargin | The maximum amount of error by which the result may differ from the input. |\n| `proj` | Projection, default: null | If specified, the result will be in this projection. Otherwise it will be in the same projection as the input. If the error margin is in projected units, the margin will be interpreted as units of this projection. |\n\nExamples\n--------\n\n### Code Editor (JavaScript)\n\n```javascript\n// Define a Polygon object.\nvar polygon = ee.Geometry.Polygon(\n [[[-122.092, 37.424],\n [-122.086, 37.418],\n [-122.079, 37.425],\n [-122.085, 37.423]]]);\n\n// Apply the simplify method to the Polygon object.\nvar polygonSimplify = polygon.simplify({'maxError': 1});\n\n// Print the result to the console.\nprint('polygon.simplify(...) =', polygonSimplify);\n\n// Display relevant geometries on the map.\nMap.setCenter(-122.085, 37.422, 15);\nMap.addLayer(polygon,\n {'color': 'black'},\n 'Geometry [black]: polygon');\nMap.addLayer(polygonSimplify,\n {'color': 'red'},\n 'Result [red]: polygon.simplify');\n```\nPython setup\n\nSee the [Python Environment](/earth-engine/guides/python_install) page for information on the Python API and using\n`geemap` for interactive development. \n\n```python\nimport ee\nimport geemap.core as geemap\n```\n\n### Colab (Python)\n\n```python\n# Define a Polygon object.\npolygon = ee.Geometry.Polygon([[\n [-122.092, 37.424],\n [-122.086, 37.418],\n [-122.079, 37.425],\n [-122.085, 37.423],\n]])\n\n# Apply the simplify method to the Polygon object.\npolygon_simplify = polygon.simplify(maxError=1)\n\n# Print the result.\ndisplay('polygon.simplify(...) =', polygon_simplify)\n\n# Display relevant geometries on the map.\nm = geemap.Map()\nm.set_center(-122.085, 37.422, 15)\nm.add_layer(polygon, {'color': 'black'}, 'Geometry [black]: polygon')\nm.add_layer(\n polygon_simplify, {'color': 'red'}, 'Result [red]: polygon.simplify'\n)\nm\n```"]]