The Consumer Data Research Centre, the UK-based organization that works with consumer-related organisations to open up their data resources, recently published a new course online: An Introduction to Spatial Data Analysis and Visualization in R. Created by James Cheshire (whose blog Spatial.ly regularly features interesting R-based data visualizations) and Guy Lansley, both of University College London Department of Geography, this practical series is designed to provide an accessible introduction to techniques for handling, analysing and visualising spatial data in R.
In addition to a basic introduction to R, the course covers specialized topics around handling spatial and geographic data in R, including:
- Making maps in R
- Mapping point data in R
- Using R to create, explore and interact with data maps (like the one shown below)
- Performing statistical analysis on spatial data: interpolation and kriging, spatial autocorrelation, geographically weighted regression and more.
The course, tutorials and associated data are freely available (a free registration to the CDRC website is required, however). You can access the course materials at the link below.
CDRC: An Introduction to Spatial Data Analysis and Visualisation in R