Lesson 1: Introduction to Geospatial Analytics

Published

July 21, 2024

Modified

August 15, 2025

Overview

This lesson consists of three parts. First, it provides an overview of geospatial analytics. Second, it explains the popular geospatial models used to store geographical data. The methods used to import, integrate, wrangle, process geospatial data will be discussed too. Lastly, the basic principles and concepts of thematic mapping and geovisualisation will be introduced.

The hands-on exercises will allow you to gaion hands-on experience on using:

  • sf package to import and wrangle vector-based data,
  • terra package to import and wrangle raster-based data, and
  • tmap package to build cartographic quality thematic maps.

Content

  • Introduction to Geospatial Analytics
    • Demystifying Geospatial Analytics
    • Motivation of Geospatial Analytics
    • A Tour Through the Geospatial Analytics Zoo
    • Geospatial Analytics and Social Consciousness
  • Fundamentals of Geospatial Data Models
    • Vector and raster data model
    • Coordinate systems and map projection
    • Handling and wrangling vector data in R: sf methods ````- Handling and wrangling raster data in R: terra methods
  • Fundamentals of Geospatial Data Visualisation and tmap Methods
    • Classification of maps
    • Principles of map design
    • Thematic mapping techniques
    • tmap methods

Lesson Slides

Self-reading Before Lesson

Hands-on Exercise

All About R

R packages for Data Science

R Package for GeoVisualisation and Thematic Mapping

References

Geospatial Analytics

GeoVisualisation and Thematic Mapping