How can I get legend when I specify user-defined color for plotting maps using geopandas?

[hbshrestha]

I have searched the answer to my question on different websites. This looks like a simple issue, but I could not figure it out.

Question about geopandas

I have created the geopandas dataframe world by reading file from inherent datasets of geopandas. And then I plotted the continents as follows:

world = gpd.read_file(gpd.datasets.get_path("naturalearth_lowres"))
world.plot("continent", legend = True)

I'd like to provide my own colors to the continents and add them to the legends. I created a dictionary called color_dict and added it as a new column to world.

color_dict = {'Oceania': 'yellow',
 'Africa': 'brown',
 'North America': 'maroon',
 'Asia': 'blue',
 'South America': 'green',
 'Europe': 'red',
 'Seven seas (open ocean)': 'skyblue',
 'Antarctica': 'white'}

world["Colors"] = world["continent"].map(color_dict)

world.plot("continent",
           color = world["Colors"],
           legend = True)

I get the colors for the continents that I set. However, I don't get the continents with colors in the legend. I am not able to figure out why this is the case. I am getting a UserWarning: Only specify one of 'column' or 'color'. Using 'color'.
warnings.warn(
Is there a way that I can get the color I defined for each continent in the map and the name of continent in the legend as well?

[martinfleis]

Hi, this is not entirely supported at the moment (we are aware and plan to change it). At the moment, you have to build the legend by yourself.

color_dict = {'Oceania': 'yellow',
 'Africa': 'brown',
 'North America': 'maroon',
 'Asia': 'blue',
 'South America': 'green',
 'Europe': 'red',
 'Seven seas (open ocean)': 'skyblue',
 'Antarctica': 'white'}

world["Colors"] = world["continent"].map(color_dict)

ax = world.plot(color = world["Colors"])

# add manual legend
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
custom_points = [Line2D([0], [0], marker="o", linestyle="none", markersize=10, color=color) for color in color_dict.values()]
leg_points = ax.legend(custom_points, color_dict.keys())
ax.add_artist(leg_points)

[hbshrestha]

Thank you for your response!