Exploring Open Spatial Analysis with R: Tools, Techniques, and Teaching Insights
Join Ron Buliung, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, as he explores the powerful world of spatial analysis using R. Discover what R is, why it’s essential for data manipulation and visualization, and how it can support your research projects. Ron will showcase key tools and packages like splancs and spatstat, demonstrate practical examples, and discuss the flexibility and accessibility of R. Learn about resources for gaining proficiency in R and how a vibrant community supports users.
Exploring Open Spatial Analysis with R: Tools, Techniques, and Teaching Insights
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Presentation Transcript
Open Spatial Analysis with Ron Buliung Assistant Professor Department of Geography University of Toronto at Mississauga ron.buliung@utoronto.ca
Outline • What, Why, Where? • Some Key Projects • What Have I Been Up To? • Resources
What is “R”? • Integrated software suite for data manipulation, calculation and graphical display: • Data handling and storage. • Operators for calculations on arrays and matrices. • Collection of tools for data analysis. • Graphing and data visualization. • Complete programming language • Domain specific sub-projects
Can also Look Like This Rcmdr – John Fox
Why Adopt “R”? • Analytically Comprehensive • FREE, and open source • Multi platform support • Flexibility • Vast array of learning resources • Continuity of Use • Culture of Use • Analytical Clarity • Introducing, my international team of collaborators!!
Drawbacks? • User interface R-GUIs: http://www.sciviews.org/_rgui/ • Problems with packages • Will it always be around? • Problems with large problems? A non-starter (see object.size, memory.size, memory.limits) • Can’t leave home without it?
Where can you learn more? http://r-spatial.sourceforge.net/ http://sal.uiuc.edu/csiss/Rgeo//
Some Key Projects • sp • splancs • Spatstat • maptools • Shapefiles • RpostGIS • Spgrass6 • Aspace • adehabitat • GeoDa?? • STARS OS OS OS Proprietary
Teaching Working Closer to the Data “Looking under the hood” Knowledge Spillovers Skills are in demand GGR276: Spatial Data Analysis and Mapping GGR370: Planes, Trains and Automobiles: The Geography of Transportation
Teaching #next two lines should be written into R as a single line mpb <- read.table("C:/bc/mpb.txt", header=TRUE, sep=",", na.strings="NA", dec=".", strip.white=TRUE) #next two lines should be written into R as a single line plot(mpb$X_coord,mpb$Y_coord,xlab="X-coords",ylab="Y-coords",main="Pine Beetle Data") n <- nrow(mpb[1]) n mean(mpb$X_coord);mean(mpb$Y_coord) mc.x<-sum(mpb$X_coord)/n mc.y<-sum(mpb$Y_coord)/n points(mc.x,mc.y,'p',pch=22,cex=2,col="blue",bg="blue") wmc.x<-sum(as.numeric(mpb$Tree_no*mpb$X_coord))/sum(mpb$Tree_no) wmc.y<-sum(as.numeric(mpb$Tree_no*mpb$Y_coord))/sum(mpb$Tree_no) points(wmc.x,wmc.y,'p',pch=22,cex=2,col="red",bg="blue") Deconstruct, Modify, Implement
Research: Human Spatial Behaviour Aspace: Open Source toolkit for geographic visualization and analysis of activity spaces – i.e., the set of locations visited by a behavioural agent (e.g., person, household) over time.
Resources • R-download http://www.r-project.org/ • R-packages http://probability.ca/cran/ • R-Spatial http://sal.uiuc.edu/csiss/Rgeo/ • R-GUIs: http://www.sciviews.org/_rgui/ • John Fox, Sociology, McMaster University: http://socserv.socsci.mcmaster.ca/jfox/ • “R for Beginners” Emmanuel Paradis • http://cran.r-project.org/ {click on Contributed on left panel.}
