1 Introduction

In this workshop we are going to work with vector data (points, lines and polygons) and raster data. R has an extraordinary potential to handle this data and perform complex spatial operations like other Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software.

We will explore the capacities of R to handle and manipulate vector data through two worked examples:

  1. Hello, world!

  2. Animal oceanographers

We will also play with raster data with a further two examples:

  1. Introduction to raster data

  2. Working with real world data

Accompanying slides can be downloaded from here

1.1 Set up your working environment

  1. Create a new project within Rstudio. If you are unsure, instructions on how to do this can be found here.

  2. Download the Data.

  3. Unzip and store its contents in a folder named data within your new project.

  4. Now create the following folders within your project - output & img. This can be done from within R as follows:

  1. Run the following code to install all required packages:
  1. Once your working environment is set up, you can copy/paste the lines of code from this website into R script(s) to run.