Application deadline: 30 March 2026
In recent years, developers have significantly expanded the capacity of the R environment to process, analyse and display spatial data. Many tasks that previously required a Geographic Information System (GIS) today can be done within R, with the added advantage that they can be fully integrated within other steps of the analysis. In addition, when using R scripts for spatial analysis and the production of maps (as opposite to using software with graphical user interfaces) they become fully documented and reproducible. Recent developments include the “sf” package, with provides support for simple features in R and allow for a smooth interaction with packages of the “tidyverse”, “terra” and “stars” for raster data, and a series of new mapping packages that allow for the creation of thematic maps and interactive maps. It is likely that even R users with some experience have not been exposed to the new tools available in R for the process, analysis and display of spatial data. This course is intended to provide this exposure.
Level
Participants should be familiar with the R environment, and general statistical approaches for modelling such as regression, analysis of covariance, and general linear models.
Main target audience
The course is aimed to students and marine scientists with some experience in the R environment. It does not assume that participants have any background in spatial analysis.
By the end of the curse participants will be able to:
- Read vector and raster data in a variety of formats.
- Create spatial objects from scratch.
- Perform spatial operations in vector and raster data.
- Query and summarise spatial data
- Prepare static and interactive maps for an array of data types.
- Jointly use R and open-source GIS sofware (i.e. QGIS).