Error in `st_transform` on Ubuntu (`Error in CPL_transform(x, crs, aoi, pipeline, reverse):`)

[RemkoDuursma]

With a routine st_transform I get the following error on Ubuntu 18

Error in CPL_transform(x, crs, aoi, pipeline, reverse) :
  OGRCreateCoordinateTransformation() returned NULL: PROJ available?
In addition: Warning message:
In CPL_transform(x, crs, aoi, pipeline, reverse) :
  GDAL Error 1: No PROJ.4 translation for source SRS, coordinate transformation initialization has failed.

Reproducible example:

data <- structure(list(adres_key = "abcde", centroide = structure(list(
    structure(c(5.48118574362483, 51.441978759039), class = c("XY", 
    "POINT", "sfg"))), class = c("sfc_POINT", "sfc"), precision = 0, bbox = structure(c(xmin = 5.48118574362483, 
ymin = 51.441978759039, xmax = 5.48118574362483, ymax = 51.441978759039
), class = "bbox"), crs = structure(list(input = "EPSG:4326", 
    wkt = "GEOGCRS[\"WGS 84\",\n    DATUM[\"World Geodetic System 1984\",\n        ELLIPSOID[\"WGS 84\",6378137,298.257223563,\n            LENGTHUNIT[\"metre\",1]]],\n    PRIMEM[\"Greenwich\",0,\n        ANGLEUNIT[\"degree\",0.0174532925199433]],\n    CS[ellipsoidal,2],\n        AXIS[\"geodetic latitude (Lat)\",north,\n            ORDER[1],\n            ANGLEUNIT[\"degree\",0.0174532925199433]],\n        AXIS[\"geodetic longitude (Lon)\",east,\n            ORDER[2],\n            ANGLEUNIT[\"degree\",0.0174532925199433]],\n    USAGE[\n        SCOPE[\"unknown\"],\n        AREA[\"World\"],\n        BBOX[-90,-180,90,180]],\n    ID[\"EPSG\",4326]]"), class = "crs"), n_empty = 0L)), row.names = 1L, sf_column = "centroide", agr = structure(c(adres_key = NA_integer_), .Label = c("constant", 
"aggregate", "identity"), class = "factor"), class = c("sf", 
"data.frame"))

library(sf)
st_transform(data, 28992)  # no projections seem to work

The above works fine on my (windows) laptop, but not on our Ubuntu 18 server.

I updated sf (0.9.4 - the dev version, also tested 0.9.3).

On loading sf I get : GEOS (3.6.2), GDAL (2.2.3), PROJ (4.9.3).

These are the most recent packages on Ubuntu 18.04.1 (according to apt-get install).

A very similar issue was posted here (so).

[rsbivand]

I can replicate on PROJ 5.2.0/GDAL 2.2.4. I got around it by coercing to sp, resetting the input CRS, and coercing back:

data_sp <- as(data, "Spatial")
wkt(data_sp) # did get populated - shouldn't
proj4string(data_sp) # NA
#Warning message:
# In proj4string(data_sp) : CRS object has comment, which is lost in output
proj4string(data_sp) <- CRS("+init=epsg:4326")
st_as_sf(spTransform(data_sp, CRS("+init=epsg:28992")))
#Simple feature collection with 1 feature and 1 field
#CRS:            +init=epsg:28992 +proj=sterea +lat_0=52.15616055555555 +lon_0=5.38763888888889 +k=0.9999079 +x_0=155000 +y_0=463000 +ellps=bessel +towgs84=565.2369,50.0087,465.658,-0.406857,0.350733,-1.87035,4.0812 +units=m +no_defs
#  adres_key                  geometry
#578 1     abcde POINT (161534.3 383657.9)

So the transformational is findable in (very) old PROJ/GDAL. In current:

> library(sf)
Linking to GEOS 3.8.1, GDAL 3.1.0, PROJ 7.0.1
> st_transform(data, 28992)
Simple feature collection with 1 feature and 1 field
geometry type:  POINT
dimension:      XY
bbox:           xmin: 161534.3 ymin: 383657.9 xmax: 161534.3 ymax: 383657.9
projected CRS:  Amersfoort / RD New
  adres_key                 centroide
1     abcde POINT (161534.3 383657.9)

My guess is that Windows is running PROJ 6.3.1 and GDAL 3.0.4.

[edzer]

Yes, this looks like an object written with GDAL vesion that supports WKT2 being read with a GDAL version that does not support WKT2. The solution is to reset (replace) the crs component of data, e.g. with

st_crs(data) = 4326 # and ignore the subsequent warning

In case this works, please add a link to the solution at the SO page.

[RemkoDuursma]

Wow, that works! Thanks! We were worried this had to do with various GDAL/PROJ/GEOM library versions...

[RemkoDuursma]

To be complete, individual geometry columns may need their own crs reset, e.g. st_crs(data$geopoint) <- 4326.

Thanks for the quick response - a huge relief.