ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 is an overview of methods and techniques for spatial data analysis in R. Principles in spatial analysis are closely related to the field of geographic information science, which incorporates both theoretical perspectives and methodological insights with regards to the use of geographic data. Traditionally, geographic information science has been performed using stand-alone desktop GIS software. This chapter demonstrates how R excels at GIS tasks, and how GIS workflows can integrate seamlessly with tidyverse tools. As with previous chapters, the examples will focus on data acquired with the tidycensus and tigris packages, and will cover common workflows with US Census data such as spatial overlay, spatial joins, small-area time-series analysis, and exploratory spatial data analysis.
