Geospatial visualization using R

Keywords: R, GIS, DataViz, Geospatial, Spatio-temporal

Learning objectives

To provide a comprehensive overview of all the options for visualizing geospatial and spatiotemporal data using R. Students will be able to visualize spatial data using various visualization options available in R such as base plotting, ggplot2, leaflet, plotly, highchartr etc. Students will gain knowledge required to perform exploratory data analysis (EDA) on spatial data and also produce production quality plots suitable for publishing in print and online media.

Justification for running the tutorial at useR! 2017

There are plethora of options available in R when it comes to visualizing spatial data, but no unified or structured learning path that covers all the major options. The CRAN Task View of Spatial Analysis provides a list of options available but nothing more than that. It would be equally beneficial to newcomers and experienced R/GIS users to get such a comprehensive tutorial.

Description of the tutorial

This will be a hands on tutorial that will start with plotting spatial data using base plotting and ggplot2. It will then cover interactive visualizations using leaflet, plotly, and highchartr and some other htmlwidgets. The tutorial will go over integrating data visualizations into print and online media using R Markdown. Finally we will go over embedding interactive data visualizations in Shiny apps.

Outline of the tutorial content

• Overview of spatial data structures and file formats
  • Quick overview of sp and sf packages.
  • File formats for spatial data
    • Shapefiles
    • Geo/Topo JSONs
    • GPX, KML and others.
• Quick overview of exploratory data analysis techniques for spatial data.
• Options to embed spatial visualization
  • R Markdown and HTML/PDF outputs
  • Shiny applications/dashboards/documents.
• Plotting for print media
  • Base Plotting
  • ggplot2 plotting
    • geom_map and geom_polygons
    • Projections support
    • Base maps from google and other sources
• Plotting for online media
  • ggplot2 for interactive mapping
  • leaflet for interactive mapping
  • plotly for interactive mapping
  • highchartr for interactive mapping
  • Other options
  • Using geospatial dataviz in Shiny.

Pre-requisites

• Familiarity with R
• Familiarity with basics of EDA.
• Familiarity with geospatial analysis is nice to have.

Potential attendees

• Geospatial analysts.
• Data visualization professionals.
• Data driven journalists.
• Anyone interested in geospatial data visualization.

Instructor

Bhaskar V. Karambelkar

Information Security Data Scientist and GIS enthusiast.

Contributed extensively to R leaflet package and developed other packages for geospatial data visualizations in R (leaflet.extras, tilegrams, colormap, leaflet.esri).

Website: https://www.karambelkar.info/

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/bhaskar_vk

Github: https://www.github.com/bhaskarvk