Spatial data divides into sets of polygons and covariates called 'shapefiles' e.g. to represent administrative boundaries, and pixel or 'raster' data, e.g. satellite-derived night light information. This workshop focuses on tools for manipulating polygon data using the R package sf.

This workshop starts by showing how to read in shapefiles, switch between commonly used spatial projections, and do basic computations such as computing point locations, distances, regional overlap, and buffering. We'll use a customs and border patrol example to show how to put these functions into action and represent the results graphically.

Prerequisites

We will use the sf package and the most recent version of the ggplot2 package which has support for sf objects. These should be installed before the workshop.

Audience

This workshop is open to anyone interested in getting an introduction processing shape data. If you are not a politics graduate student, please send email to [email protected] that you are planning to attend, so we can ensure enough space in the room.

Materials

qaps-spatial.zip