Creating Maps with R

Course details

If you need to learn more about creating maps with R, this beginner-friendly course introduces an end-to-end mapping workflow and shows you how to import your data directly from Excel to create both static and interactive maps. Instructor Charlie Joey Hadley explains mapping fundamentals, like geo markers, scatter plots, hexbin maps, cartograms, and more. Charlie walks you through processing GIS data from Excel and working with GIS data formats such as raster, vector, sf, and sp. She demonstrates how to create, label, and transform static maps with ggplot2, then dives into building interactive, mobile-ready maps using Leaflet, an HTML widget package for creating interactive maps with R. Plus, Charlie covers base maps and tiles, projections, the Coordinate Reference System (CRS), and more.

Concepts

Introduction

Why create maps with R
Base knowledge
GitHub repository and exercise files

Mapping Fundamentals

How to choose a map
Geo marker and scatter plots
Geo bubble charts
Choropleth - Shaded area maps
Hexbin maps or hexagonally binned choropleth
Dot density
Cartograms - Distorted area maps

Processing GIS Data from Excel

Standardize country names with countrycode
Join shapefiles with data in Excel files
Convert addresses to coordinates with geocoding
Challenge - Geolocate all US state capitol buildings
Solution - Geolocate all US state capitol buildings

Working with GIS Data Formats

GIS data formats - Raster or vector
Vector GIS data - sf and sp
Work with sf datasets and the tidyverse
Challenge - Visualizing continent populations
Solution - Visualizing continent populations

Static Maps with ggplot2

Use geom sf to visualize geo locations
ggplot2 choropleth and continuous data
ggplot2 choropleth and discrete data
Label maps with ggrepel package
Zoom into regions with coords sf()
Transform CRS with coord sf()
Challenge - Label a geobubble chart of Germany's biggest cities
Solution - Label a geobubble chart of Germany's biggest cities
Challenge - Visualize state coastline length with choropleth
Solution - Visualize state coastline length with choropleth

Interactive Maps with Leaflet

The basics of using Leaflet
Use Leaflet to visualize geo locations
Add labels and pop-ups to Leaflet maps
Leaflet choropleth and continuous data
Leaflet choropleth and discontinuous data
Set a background color with leaflet.extras
Challenge - Add pop-up labels to a map of German cities
Solution - Add pop-up labels to a map of German cities
Challenge - Interactive choropleth of state coastline length
Solution - Interactive choropleth of state coastline length

CRS, Projections, and Map Tiles

Base maps and tiles
What are projections and CRS
Geographics vs. projected CRS
How to choose CRS and use them with sf

Conclusion

What else can you learn about creating maps in R