Spatial Data

Spatial data is any type of data that directly or indirectly references a specific geographical area or location. Sometimes called geospatial data or geographic information.

Best case for mapping spatial data: when geography matters. Do not overuse it.

Graphs

• Choropleth
• Geographic Coordinate

sf and tmap

R Package sf is for reading shape files (.shp). To see the read map, use function st_geometry() and plot the returned object.

R Package tamp is for plotting maps (generated by sf) together with other data. The general workflow is

1. Get the spatial data by reading the shape file using sf
2. Combine spatial data and other data
   • e.g. use left_join()
3. plot the combined data using tmap

by zcysxy