Introduction to visualising spatial data in R
Robin Lovelace, James A. Cheshire · 2014
This tutorial is an introduction to spatial data in and map making with R's `base' graphics and the popular graphics package ggplot2. It assumes no prior knowledge of spatial data analysis but prior understanding of the R command line would be beneficial. For people new to R, we recommend working through an `Introduction to R' type tutorial, such as A (very) short introduction to R (Torfs and Brauer, 2012) or the more geographically inclined introduction to R (Harris, 2012). Building on such background material, the following set of exercises is concerned with specific functions for spatial data and visualisation. It is divided into five parts: *Introduction, which provides a guide to R's syntax and preparing for the tutorial *Spatial data in R, which describes basic spatial functions in R *Manipulating spatial data, which includes changing projection, clipping and spatial joins *Map making with ggplot2, a recent graphics package for producing beautiful maps quickly *Taking spatial analysis in further, a compilation of resources for furthering your skills An up-to-date version of this tutorial is maintained at https://github.com/Robinlovelace/Creating-maps-in-R and the entire tutorial, including the input data can be downloaded as a zip file, as described below. The entire tutorialwas written in RMarkdown, which allows code to run as the document compiles. Thus all the examples are entirely reproducible. Suggested improvements welcome - please fork, improve and push this document to its original home to ensure its longevity. The tutorial was developed for a series of Short Courses put on by the National Centre for Research Methods, via the TALISMAN node (see geotalisman.org).